Tea Dyeing Papers, Lace and Ribbon

Hello and Welcome to a short tutorial on tea dyeing!

I use a lot of tea dyed paper and textiles in my vintage work and although I have little tutorials all over my blog I thought I would bring all the photographs together in one place.

So .... starting with Paper

I use ordinary computer copy paper 80gms to 100gms. The different thicknesses take the tea differently.

I make up a bowl of tea with warm water and let it cool. It takes a good number of tea bags! You need something quite rich in colour. Then I drag each piece of paper through the tea, shake very carefully and then hang it on a clothes airer over the draining board.

When it has dried a little and can be handled I load up about five/six pieces on top of each other on a baking tray and put them in the oven (140 degrees) for five minutes to "crisp" up a bit.

I store them for a few days before using as they can still be a little damp.

I only ever use ordinary tea for paper, fruit teas have no effect on the paper at all.

Lace, Ribbon and Other Small Textiles

I find the easiest way of dyeing lace is in cups or mugs.

I make up a little brew of either ordinary or fruit tea and place my lace or ribbon in the cup and squish it about a bit until it has some colour. Cotton lace or ribbon will take the colour quite differently to acrylic, so it is worth putting it back in again if it hasn't got much colour.

I lift the pieces out with a spoon and lay them on paper towel to dry.

This the general colour from ordinary tea.

Green Tea

Tesco Red Berries Infusion (smells gorgeous too!)

Tesco Cranberry and Blood Orange (very delicate hues)

Other things you can try in your mugs: Coffee Filters, Doilies, bits of muslin and calico, clothes labels and ribbon ....... I love how the Berry Tea has so much Blueberry in it! Quite a surprise.

Even the paper towels are a lovely colour!

And no need to buy good quality tea, supermarket special is perfectly adequate.

I store each tea in separate bags so I always have a "go to" and know that the different hues of one single tea dye will all match.

As always thank you for joining me and have fun!

Jennie x