Tea staining

I did some of my own paper tea staining. I used water colour paper.

 I used wet and slightly wrung out tea bags as stamps ...

and left some to soak right in...

 I used a white candle as a resist to make a subtle border and then dipped an entire page in tea.

 I realised if left to its own devices the tea seems to dry quite evenly and so put plastic on after dipping this sheet to draw the tea thicker where there is contact with the plastic.

 I wanted to stain this small piece of wallpaper and so tried to use it as a stencil at the same time.

 I also stained some white lace I had bought and used it as a sort of stencil too.

 Here is a before and after effect of some white and some tea stained lace.

 I used a cut out of mary and her lamb to put candle wax down as a resist and stain around it. The subtlety of the white and brown feels aged.

 Slightly more challenging was my attempt at stretching a stained piece of paper around an embroidery frame...it gets worn and a bit torn but I am trying to decide whether or not that is in fact more desirable in my context of making an old-looking nostalgic-feeling object.

 The feeling of an old fashioned frame with aged content goes nicely with my nursery rhyme theme, i think. It allows for illustration format.