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After dabbling with tie dying the tea bag paper treated with cyanotype chemicals and creating some interesting effects (see previous blog post on Cyanotype tie dye) my mind went into overdrive!  I researched and trawled google for techniques to try.  It's not as simple as just tie dying the paper as the effects are created  depending on where the sunlight can reach or not reach and in a heavily folded piece of shibori the only exposed surfaces would be the outsides and the majority would stay white. Here are a selection of the results I achieved this time.

I've had some success printing on to tea bag paper but I was a little bit sceptical as to how well it would pick up the details from a collagraph plate as the paper needs to make contact with lots of little grooves and channels in the plate. Here's the printing process I went through and the outcomes.

Tie dying paper is tricky as the paper is usually too fragile to be manipulated a lot, especially when damp.  Knowing that the tea bag paper is strong when wet I suddenly thought that I could try things I might with a fabric but could then use it as a collage paper! Coooool! 

One of the main projects I had in mind for the tea bag paper was cyanotype printing.  Those of you who have followed my work on Facebook or Instagram will have seen previous cyanotypes I have made over the last year or so.  I have created prints on a range of papers and fabric with varying success.  Some papers are brilliant for showing detail in the prints whilst others have a less defined edge to the images.  Unfortunately though, some of the papers that develop the best image quality disintegrate at the rinsing stage.  

I really wanted to see how well the tea bag paper faired when stitched by hand.  It seems pretty sturdy so I thought I would create a bit of a canvas to work in to.  Why not kill two birds with one stone and play with the gelli plate too?