I arrange the bags. That part is mine.

Where they sit on the paper, how many, how close together. I can adjust all of that while everything is still wet.

But once I've placed them, the tea does what it does. The pigment spreads into the paper at its own pace. It follows the texture of the surface. It pools, fades, bleeds at the edges.

I'm not controlling that part. I'm setting up conditions and then waiting to see what happens.

Most of the time I'm surprised by something. A color I didn't expect. A shape at the edge of a bag that reads differently than the bag itself.

That's what I'm looking for when I make these. The thing I didn't plan.

Shop the collection.

— Reed Slater
Teascarf Brooklyn