Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

tea plant , Hangzhou  Last week, I visited the Xihu Lake ( West Lake) area near Hangzhou, Zhejaing Province in China. Besides being a very scenic place, it has the reputation of producing the best green tea in China -  Xihu Longjing tea, or Dragon Well tea. first growth  March picking ( Swallow's tongue)  pre Qing-Ming picking - first Spring  tea shoots  early April  later picking - lower grade 'Dragon Well After the Rain' tea tea picking baskets and tea picker's hat  I tasted the three grades of Dragon Well tea and learnt some important tips about preparing the tea , for example, the water should be 85 degrees C.  Like most other Chinese green tea, Longjing   tea leaves   are roasted   early in processing (after picking) to stop the natural oxidation process, which is a part of creating black and oolong teas. The actions of these enzymes is stopped by "firing" (heating in pans) before they complete...

Can you guess what sort of tea ? It's cranberry  tea, with a couple of cranberry and pomegranate tea bags thrown in for good colour! Here I have laid down some gum leaves on the fabric, and pressed tea bags over the top, and then taking a few tea bags with a pair of kitchen tongs, I dabbed the fabric .I then traced the outlines and drew the flowers in with a permanent marker. This is a prayer flag I've made for  The Talking Needles Project  held in conjunction with  Timeless Textiles .  This flag with the 100+ others will be auctioned off on Sunday at 2pm - you can even bid online by contacting  Timeless Textiles .

Featuring eco prints by my grandson....  eucalypt leaves, grevillea leaves and Rooibos tea bags on watercolour paper. PostScript .... There was a request to explain how this was done. Watercolour paper folded over, leaves and tea bags placed inside the folded paper. The folded paper was then sandwiched between two pieces of ply board and clamped together with strong paper clip ( we call them 'bulldog' clips) and the whole sandwich was boiled in a pot of water  for about an hour. I learnt this technique from Elizabeth Bunsen who is the master artist of this technique- we have just been playing.