The Story Behind Teascarf Brooklyn: Art Made From Tea

Every scarf and pillow cover in this shop starts the same way: with tea. I steep the tea bags, arrange them on paper, let them dry, then remove them to create the original artwork, which then gets photographed and printed onto silk. It's a strange enough process that people usually ask about it before they ask about the scarf itself.

I'm Reed Slater, and I make this work in Brooklyn. I use tea bags to make art, and what started small turned into a full collection. First small studies that became pillow covers, then larger pieces that can be fully appreciated as scarves. Every piece traces back to one of those original tea arrangements, which means every print is genuinely one-of-a-kind at its source, even though I produce it in small batches.

The same process also makes handmade wall art. In this piece, called Rose Hips: 100 Teabags, 100 rose hips tea bags have been steeped, arranged, and dried on watercolor paper, then photographed and printed onto fabric and stretched over a handmade wooden frame. The original stays on paper. This is the reproduction, made to be hung. See it here, or in person at Resident Barber, 169 Lincoln Place in Brooklyn.

The scarves are hand-finished with hand-rolled edges, the same technique used on the world's most expensive scarves, done slowly, by hand, because I think it's worth the extra time. Every order over $50 comes with a small original tea print on paper, signed and dated, so even the smallest order includes an actual piece of the original art.

Reed Slater
Teascarf Brooklyn

Visit the Teascarf Brooklyn homepage to see the full collection, or the Rose Hips wall art piece directly.