Friday, September 20, 2013

spinning tea bags!


A few months ago and by accident I stumbled upon my local spinners and weavers group, thinking I was going to my yoga class I realised I'd turned up on the wrong day when I saw spinning wheels in the hall instead of yoga mats!  It was actually one of those happy accidents - divine alignment, for some time I had entertained the idea of spinning with tea bags and of course after seeing the spinning wheels in the hall made me even more determined to give it a go.  I received a warm welcome when I eventually went back to introduced myself and to chat about my ideas.  It was suggested to bring some tea bags in the following week - armed with sewn tea bags the following week I was given my very first spinning lesson.  All inspired and eager I purchased my own spinning wheel from one of the ladies in the group took it home and started spinning! 

It's certainly a slow process, each tea bag is emptied, cut into four strips and sewn on my treadle sewing machine into one long strip - one tea bag yields half a metre (50cm)!

 
Preparing tea bags for spinning...


 
Spinning action, it takes hours to sew the tea bags and minutes to spin them.

 
All spun on the spools, these two spools would approximate to 100mtrs in length.

 
A tiny ball from one spool.

15 comments:

  1. had you done any spinning before? just last weekend I was with some ladies spinning a combination of camel and goat hair (post on my blog) while I tried to sell a few pots. So now you have the yarn, what is next? I wonder if you could spin without sewing them together first?

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    1. no this was my first attempt at spinning. Camel and goat hair would be spin up nice I suspect, I have heard people spinning dog hair. I intend knitting and crocheting with it. Spinning without sewing doesn't work unfortunately with wool, fur, hair etc it sticks together when spinning the tea bags don't - its all good, sewing is part of the process. As crazy as it may seem, I do enjoy it :-)

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  2. Congrats on learning to spin your own fibres, it's a liberating step to take in textiles! Enjoy reading about your work.

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    1. thanks and for taking the time to comment :-) I feel I must learn to spin other fibres like wool and hope to soon.

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  3. K - such a labour of love; and a beautiful outcome. B

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    1. beautifully described B, it is truly a labour of love - the process is so labour intensive however I really love doing it!

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  4. Now Kim you just have to weave!! In a past life I spun wool and loved the rhythm of the work as the fleece came through the fingers!! I look forward to seeing what you do with this twine!! Wow - I am so impressed!!

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    1. Hi Wyn, funny you mention weaving... I have rainchecked a future session with Jean, one of the weavers in the group. I can't wait to see how they will weave, however I must remain focused on the task at hand - as you would know, it is so easy to get distracted!! Do you still find time to spin?

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  5. hello, i have spun sewing pattern paper and without sewing first! you definitely can spin tea bag paper without sewing first (though your process is yours and it sounds like you enjoy it!) all that needs to happen is that you layer the papers within each other during the twist. the resultant paper thread/yarn is perfectly stable this way and easy to work with. i did some miniature weaving with my paper yarn. i enjoyed reading about your process and i might experiment with that as well just to add an element to my paper yarns.

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    1. Hello twistgist - thanks for dropping by and sharing your tips! Yes, sewing tea bags is very much part of my process, using the treadle embodies great significance and would be lost if was not employed as part of the process, I also like the meditative energies it brings when creating the yarn...

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  6. wow! that's a new twist (no pun intended :-) ) on using tea bags, heh! I've been using them for years to draw, print and collage on my textile work, but wouldn't have thought of spinning them. I actually just wrote a blogpost yesterday about printing on tea bags. if you're interested it's at http://www.judycoatesperez.com/print-a-photo-on-a-tea-bag/

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    1. Hi Judy, all puns welcome! :-) Tea bags are fab to work with. I've also printed onto them and am currently working on an exhibition for which most part include printed imagery. It's most inspiring seeing other works created using the ole humble tea bag!

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  7. Have you considered stitching the teabags together whole, and THEN cutting them in to strips?....I'm sure it would cut your time down considerably, and should be strong enough if you either ran two lines of stitching for each seam, or used a small stitch length? :)

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    1. Hi Sheilagh, thanks for your comment and dropping by. I guess there are many options for joining or sewing tea bags and I have explored many - I like your thinking on saving time. Time taken to create an art work is all part of the process and for some (strange)reason I find this process an enjoyable one - slow art. Also, in the technique I have developed, I particularly like the texture created by the frayed edges of the cotton in the finished object :)

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Thanks for taking the time to comment I really appreciate them!