Wee teabag book

This little book came to me upon waking one day. And I had to give it a try.

I’ve been saving these silky tea bags from a tin of tea, and with another pot or two made, I was done with the tea. I had enough empty bags to make a decently chunky book. I needed to carefully open the bags along three edges, and clean any stray tea leaves out of them. Then I wrapped the closed edges with little strips of paper to stabilize them. The paper was from a scrap of BFK Rives. I dyed the wrappers with tea so they would blend nicely.

To make the covers, I cut four little rectangles of the Rives paper and stained them with a little leftover walnut dye. I got some nice patterns by not being too careful with it, so it pooled up. Then I glued two rectangles together and folded them in half, giving me a front and a back cover.

Next step, I used the Coptic stitch to bind the book. It was tricky because the papers were pretty soft and smushy. If I ever do this again, I will use firmer paper to wrap the edges.