First, make a cup of teaby
steamy tea and a good book on a rainy day provide more than blissful comfort. The overlooked bonus is the lowly tea bag, often discarded without a thought. This substrate, stained in lovely hues of ochre and sepia, begs to be adorned wiThfabric, thread, and paint. Tea bags were an accidental invention attributed by some to an early American tea merchant who gave samplesized silk pouches of tea to his customers. His intention, though, was misunderstood. Rather than emptying the contents into strainers, some dropped the entire bags into the pot. Thus the convenient, disposable tea bag was born. Lucky us. More art supplies! Today's tea bags are made from various fibers, most commonly abaca, the leaf stalk of the banana plant. The resulting paper is surprisingly strong, able to withstand boiling…
