Tea Bags to Tea Book
I’m really picky about my iced tea, so it didn’t take long for me to decide that a mixed media book using tea bags should be about my favorite beverage. Therefore, “Perfect Iced Tea” became the subject of my book.
First, I took photos representing the stages of making iced tea: tea bags, my yellow pitcher, Sweet ‘n Low, etc.
I had seen a mixed media book which incorporated some clear plastic pages. You know, like that transparency paper you can run through your printer? I thought it would be cool to print stylized versions of the various images onto the transparency paper and incorporate them into the book.
Great idea, but achieving a “stylized version” that I was happy with became a challenge. Eventually, I printed out high contrast versions of these photos and traced the major lines onto the transparency paper. This worked well, and I liked the hand drawn aspect.
In the photo below, you can see my audition of the concept. The pot has been drawn onto transparency, as I’m auditioning fabrics to go with it.
Click any image for a larger view
The above photo shows the rest of my idea, as well. I decided to make an accordion style book, using heavy watercolor paper. Each page has 1/2 of a tea bag glued to it, as background.
My plan is to create a simple fabric collage on each right page which will support the printed image floating above it. It’s a little tricky creating a collage in this fashion, but I’m making progress. The left side with feature text, again printed onto transparency. Here are a few in-progress pages:
It has taken a lot of fiddling to get to this point. Now, let’s see if I can pull it all together. My work table is filled with this project and I’m having fun working through it, at a relaxing pace.
I’m anxious to see how it turns out, and will show you soon!
Ellen Lindner
After receiving my amazing breathtaking Art with Heart book for Cherie Stannard, and enjoying it cover to cover, I want to stop by and thank the artists who contributed. Thank you.