Honouring the grace and ritual of the Japanese Tea Ceremony - tea bags are brewed, steeped, dried, contents removed and ironed, in preparation to be used as collage material. Depending on the type and strength of the tea, subtle or dramatic colours and markings are coaxed into existence. I prefer to allow the natural geometry and colour within the stain to dictate the direction the piece will take on the canvas but for the most part they just about always lend themselves to what may appear to be a simple grid pattern. In other instances the tea bags are simply added as a rich, earthy element in a mixed media collage piece.