This all started with curiosity.
I saw a ladder on top of a building near mine, and I climbed it. I fell to the roof below and was in a coma for a month.
That experience changed my life. It also changed my outlook. I became more able to appreciate beauty in everyday things, and that changed what I saw in the world.
After what I went through, ordinary things no longer felt ordinary to me. I wanted to find beauty where no one expected it, and make something from it.
I didn't want to simply admire beauty. I wanted to create it. I wanted to make something beautiful and share it with other people.
I'm Reed Slater, an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Since 2012, I've been using steeped tea bags as a medium to create art.
I don't really even like to drink tea. I make art with it. But how did I ever think of that?
I had the idea that I could capture the energy of tea bags to make a picture, so I bought a sampler box of assorted teas. I started testing.
The first time I tried to make a tea print, I had to see if it would even work. I brewed the tea bags, arranged them on paper, and let them dry there.
At first, I questioned whether what I was making could even be considered art because the process was so unusual.
Soon my studio became a laboratory, with sheets of paper at different stages of drying on every horizontal surface.
Tea was ordinary.
What I made with it was not.
Because I knew the colors of the original tea prints would not last, I photographed them and digitally printed the images on fabric. Using digital acid printing on natural fibers like silk and wool, I was able to preserve the beauty of the originals and transform them into scarves, pillow covers, and wall art.
I actually made pillow covers first, from smaller square prints, before I understood how to create larger tea prints for wall art and for scarves that became Teascarf Brooklyn.
It is my way of sharing beauty by transforming something humble into something lasting—pieces people can wear, live with, and keep close.
Thank you for being part of my story and supporting my art.