Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Today's tea tantaliser is a book . I am currently reading "Liquid Jade - The Story of Tea from East to West". I am thoroughly enjoying this social history of tea, finding beautiful poetry, funny and fascinating stories, interesting facts and new knowledge about tea and its integral part in the history of  'East meets West' . Here is an extract from the blurb : ... Liquid Jade's rich narrative history explores tea in all its social and cultural aspects... .  Entertaining yet informative  and extensively researched, Liquid Jade  tells the story of Western greed and Eastern bliss ... also depicts tea's beauty and delights, not only with myths about the beginnings of tea or the lovers' legend in the familiar blue and white porcelain willow pattern, but also with a rich and varied selection of works of art and historical photographs, which form a rare and comprehensive visual tea record... Connecting past and present and spanning five thousand years, B...

hand felted tea pot   On the weekend I attended a workshop at Timeless Textiles, with visiting Ohio tutor and master felter, Pam MacGregor. I am  quite happy with my  creation from Finn  and Merino wool supplied by Feltfine , a local wool supplier.  I thought the design I added in merino wool looked quite organic, but I did note with amusement that someone commented that the flat version looked like pastry and jam. For quite some time,  I was doubtful I could make a lid with stopper which would fit, but following Pam's formula it fits perfectly. teapot ( back)  flat wet teapot  Pam MacGregor is an excellent tutor,  talented felt artist and a wonderful and  generous person . When I first saw the photo of her fish teapot ( below) I knew I wanted to do the workshop with her.  Please visit Pam's website and see more of her brilliant felted teapots. tea pot by Pam MacGregor 

"Garden Party" tag inspired by a poem by Wang Wei.  It would have been  a delight to sip tea in the garden, but ... Softly closing the chamber door,  Alone I await you in the empty room.  You never came.  Disappointed, I drink solitary tea .       - Wang Wei: An Occasional Poem During the last year, I have been reading a lot about tea, and especially poetry inspired by tea. This little verse by Wang Wei is amongst my favourites. However, the most well known tea poem of the same period in Chinese history was written by Lu Tong , a hermit, who was so moved by a gift of tea that he wrote : The first cup kisses away my thirst, and my loneliness is quelled by the second,  The third gives insight worthy of ancient scrolls,  and the fourth exiles my troubles,  My body becomes lighter with the fifth, and the sixth sends word from the immortals, But the seventh - of the seventh cup -  If I drink you, a wind will hurry...

Some experiments of stitching on tea bags ... The one in the middle was  attached to organza and waxed  before stitching, but I don't like the prominent needle marks and I wrecked a needle.  I am happy with the others -left, Lipton black ; right - Cranberry and Apple tea. Did you know that tea bags were invented  at the turn of the twentieth century by an American tea merchant, Thomas Sullivan who used to send his customers samples of tea in tins, until he started to cut costs by sending single serves of tea in silk pouches. To his amazement, the pouches were very popular when his customers began to drop the whole pouch and contents into a teapot, marvelling at the convenience of making tea with a bag. Soon the accidental invention of the tea bag became popular especially in the USA and in Europe. The first mass produced tea bags were made from fine cotton gauze or muslin, and in the 1950's these were replaced with the paper tea bag. And as they say, the rest is ...

sliced centre of Momordica fruit  Momordica tea - I must admit I had not heard of it until I met a fellow traveller in China recently, and she told me about it. In fact, rather than try to describe it, she sourced some for me  in Sydney and sent me some to try.   Momordica fruit    Here is a description of the fruit , summarised from the Life Rising Tea website  and Wikipedia   The  Momordica or "lo han kuo" is a small gourd-like fruit having an intensely sweet taste, widely used by the South Chinese as a household remedy for colds, sore-throat, and minor stomach and intestinal troubles. In the early fall, Momordica fruit is yellowish-red and found in the south of China. Naturally sweet and delicious. Momordica has been nicknamed "longevity fruit" in China because it is believed that prolonged consumption will result in a long life. The fruit's shape is said to imitate the belly of a Buddha and its   names include arhat f...

This is the Willow Pattern we are most familiar with - a traditional  chinaware design  by Thomas Minton in 1790, popularised for at least the next 200 years. Thinking back to the old poem about the Willow Pattern,  Two birds flying high, A Chinese vessel, sailing by. A bridge with three men, sometimes four, A willow tree, hanging o'er. A Chinese temple, there it stands, Built upon the river sands. An apple tree, with apples on, A crooked fence to end my song I discovered that some of my photos taken recently in China reminded me of  a contemporary Willow Pattern scene. As I am not a skilled photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I have tried to turn two very rather ordinary photos into modern versions of the Willow Pattern - well at least, elements of the Willow Pattern.  1. Original Image - Wild Goose Pagoda , Xian , China   2. Sepia tint   3. Blue tint   4. Blue tint  w...

This has really very little to do with tea,  but tea was used in its creation....  This is a tag I created for another blog group, Tag Tuesday which had as its theme this week, The 1950s.  I was born in 1950 and devoid of any imagination this week, I decided to use a photo of myself about 5 months old - the photo was taken at City Studios in Townsville, Queensland, on 1 November 1950. I have used a photocopy of my original birth certificate ( reduced in size)  as the background.  I scanned the original photo and printed it then covered it with tea bag paper to give it an aged 64 year old look. One of the embellishments is a motif that I tatted and dyed with tea. The tatting is not so fantastic, but I think tatting is one of the domestic arts which was more popular in the 1950s so I thought it was appropriate. The string is also dyed with tea! And so, here is my example of how I used tea bag paper and tea to give an aged look to newly created items. ...