Various legends exist from China around tea and the humble teabag. Artists have created original pieces of art on teabags or using their surfaces to stitch.
I am currently using them to dye fabric.
What is the purpose of a junk journal?
It can be anything you turn it into. As I enjoy bookbinding I'm stitching my own book.
Over the years I have kept ephemera so have plenty of supplies for gluing in collage, old drawings, memorabilia, old books and photos.
I have often been told I can't draw so I’m using it to doodle and paint in. My skills are improving and I’ve found I like using a fine black ink pen. I'm on a junk journal journey so who knows what it will turn out like. I’ll keep you posted.
Bookmaking has its challenges. After spending time cutting pages, stitching a cover and binding that bundle, the first page often poses fear and anxiety.
What if I make a mistake?
I don’t really know what to write?
Shall I just leave the book blank?
This blank page is daunting.
Start at the second page. A quote is always a good way to start as someones else's words can give you inspiration.
Randomly paint a few pages.
Colour on a page can give you objects or patterns that you can make out. It's called pareidolia. Just like we see the ‘man in the moon.’ In some dyed paper I saw a blue splodge as an eye and so embroidered a few stitches.
Give things a go. There are no mistakes.
