Hello everyone, hope your Tuesday has been a good one! Mine has been OK but quite productive as I have finished and photographed all 100 of my ATC book covers for the 100 Day Project and will be sharing that soon, but now I have another art journal page to share with you tonight as part of my language theme.
As you know, I am Guest Hosting the May challenge over on Art Journal Journey this month and my chosen theme is…
Language!
You can find a nice list of ideas about language inspired pages in my introduction post just click here.
For today’s post, I was inspired by tea! [icon name=”coffee” style=”solid” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] [icon name=”coffee” style=”solid” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] [icon name=”coffee” style=”solid” class=”” unprefixed_class=””] Both the idea of tea and the tea that I was drinking. Here’s the tea I was drinking along with some tasty Anzac Biscuits!
So after I made my tea, I squeezed the teabag out all over this page and then left it to dry while I had my tea and biscuits. Then I started sketching my tea and biscuits on the page, because, why not lol. I had been wondering what I was going to put on the page and then I thought, why not just draw what’s in front of me!
In a previous p/t job I had to sell tea, so in order to sell tea to people, you have to know a bit about tea so you can talk to them about the various aspects of the tea, answer questions correctly and so on. I even had to sit a tea exam and a taste test lol. So my page is inspired by the language of tea, like most specialist subjects tea has its own language, the various types of tea, countries of origin, altitudes that the tea is grown at, and all the many leaf gradings under which tea leaf is categorised from the very Finest Tippy to the Fannings/Fines and Dust. These gradings are all about the appearance of the leaf and not about the quality of the tea which can only be done by expert tasters. I have written the tea leaf gradings on my page below, along with all the types of tea that all come from the same plant – Camellia Sinensis. If it is not Camelia Sinensis, it is not “tea” though there are other types of beverage that we drink as “tea” that do not come from the tea plant eg Rooibos tea, Honeybush tea and the various herb and flower infusions. Rooibos (red bush) tea and Honeybush tea can be drunk in the same way as black tea, with or without milk, sugar, lemon etc, but contain no caffeine unlike all the teas that come from the Camellia Sinensis plant (white, green, yellow, black and oolong teas).
Also included on the page are all the countries that grow tea. I have listed Darjeeling separately to India though it is a region in Northern India, because of the altitude and the specific qualities of Darjeeling tea that makes it different to the rest of tea produced in India. Tea grown at very high altitude takes longer to grow and so the tea is more expensive. If it’s not grown in Darjeeling, then it can’t be called Darjeeling tea.
Special Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (SFTGFOP) is quite a mouthful don’t you think? This is the very best flowery orange pekoe tea leaf. Flowery orange pekoe (FOP) denotes tea from the end bud and first leaf of each shoot. FOP contains only fine young leaves rolled with the correct amount of tip. When golden is mentioned in the grading it means there is a large amount of golden tips in the tea. And so it goes until you reach the bottom of the list where you get Broken orange pekoe (BOP) and Dust. Dust is used mainly for teabag blends that require a quick brew and consist of very fine siftings of broken orange pekoe leaf eg Pekoe Dust (PD).
Did you know that tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world? Number one is of course, water, but tea is loved around the world by many people especially in the tea growing regions where many millions/billions of people are drinking tea every day. There are other tea facts I might save for another tea post, but since it is a tea page I even found an Iced Chai Gelato to use – the brown squiggly line on the bottom right corner is made using it in keeping with the tea theme!
Here’s another look at my inspiration photo – this is a very large mug that has cats and cat toys and fish on it, and then my latest batch of Anzac biscuits. I only had two with my tea, but I am just about to make another cup so I might just have another one. The tin was a xmas present – special edition Oreos, all different types. I kept the tin because it’s a nice tin and also it’s made for biscuits so it’s perfect for refilling with something tasty! If you want the Anzac biscuit (aka cookies) recipe you can find it here in this post. Since it’s Tuesday I am sharing this at T Stands for Tuesday also, see below.
I hope you feel inspired to join me at Art Journal Journey this month. Language is all about communication, and I would love to see you communicate using language on your pages, in whatever form you choose. I have a lot of ideas for language-inspired spreads to share with you over the course of this month, so do keep checking back if you need some inspiration or ideas, or even just to say hi! I can’t wait to see what you do with this month’s theme and I will be dropping by to see all your lovely creations.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!
Ingredients
My handmade art journal, tea, neocolor IIs, pitt pens, gelato – iced chai!, black pen
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – Language – May Challenge
T Stands for Tuesday – also joining in with my tea themed page
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A fabulous page and it does so appeal to me as a tea drinker, the tea stains background looks great and I’m sure you will have enjoyed the biscuits you made with your cuppa.
A fabulous inspiration page for your theme at AJJ
Yvonne xx
A fantastic journal page with the biscuits and tea. I also love tea but also coffee!
Have a good day , hug Elke
This a fabulous page Elle. I love how you made that quick background.
We used to have a Tea shop in our village but sadly it closed down during last year. They had huge shelves of different teas (and some coffee) that you could buy in small amounts – they also used to have a sampling area. Not being a tea drinker I stuck to coffee but hubby used to buy some unusual teas. Some of the names you mention look familiar! Your biscuits look good, which reminds me, I have some frozen biscuit mix I can bake at the weekend. Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx
Fascinating tea info! And the Anzac cookies look tasty 🙂 Happy T Day!
I love that you not only showed us your tea but also used the leftovers in the bag to color your page. Tea is a very complex language isn’t it? There’s so many types and kinds. And Id didn’t know it was the most consumed beverage behind water. I would have thought coffee in this day and age. Your drawings is quite lovely too. This is a fun month Elle. I am finally going to find some time to make a few more pages today also. Loving this language topic. Hugs-Erika
Elle, this is fabulous! Great way to play with tea and your drawings are wonderful. Wow. I learned a lot reading this and I am so impressed you had this special training and know so much about tea. Lovely pages!!!! Happy late T-day. I think I am going to get some assorted teas and try dome of these different things you mentioned here! Fun.
You have made another wonderful page for your theme, and the drawings are so well done. Very informative, too, but I must confess that I don’t like tea, coffee is always my drink. Happy T Day, and thanks again for another great page for your theme at AJJ, hugs, Valerie
That was an interesting discussion. There are quite a few books on tea, with history and conflicts about it and all that. My culinary book club read one a few years ago.
I was a little confused about Africa — you mentioned this large continent as a growing region, and also two countries within the continent, Kenya and South Africa. I’m sure not all areas of Africa are suitable for tea cultivation, so I don’t understand what you mean.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Fascinating facts about tea and your page and sketches are beautiful. A friend from Canberra had sent an Anzac biscuit recipe when the Young One was had selected Australia for her country in the 3rd grade Holidays Around the World. I had to substitute the Golden syrup as I couldn’t find it. I think I used either corn syrup or honey. So long ago I can’t remember. The cookies were a hit though. Vegemite, not so much ? Happy T Day
Wow, this is wonderful, Elle. For a part time job, you certainly had to know a LOT. I love how you used the tea to create the background of the tea inspired page. I am glad you shared this with us, as I knew most of what you shared today. What I wasn’t familiar with were all the pekoe blends. That was new to me. Thanks for doing double today with your lovely language inspired entry for Art Journal Journal and your tea inspired art for T this Tuesday. I LOVE it, dear.