Tea Bag Folding - History

Tea Bag Folding, this is a departure from the norm for me. Tea bag folding is one of those crafts that provides you with a quiet meditation that you can enjoy simply in the folding and creasing of the tiles that you use.

So, what is tea bag folding you may ask? Tea bag folding is truly a craft that was based on the motto that "Necessity is the mother of invention." This is the story as it has been shared with me:

A woman from Holland was in need of a birthday card for her sister. As she sat down with a cup of tea pondering her dilemma, she started folding the tea bag envelope and thus created the craft of tea bag folding. You can imagine, the tea bag envelopes were much more attractive than the ones we have today. Today, there are numerous resources on the internet that have free tea bag tiles. We are also fortunate to have a plenitude of decorative papers and wrapping paper that we can use for our tiles. Pretty much anything goes. Oh, a tile is the word used to describe your square of paper that you fold to make the medallions.

Some key tips about tea bag folding:

• The paper that you use should be a perfect square
• All the tiles should have the same pattern (note: this is not required, just generally practiced)
• The folding that you do is similar to origami

Tea Bag or teabag? I really don't know which is the correct way to write it. However, the first site that I was introduced to with tea bag folding wrote it this way. You will see that I will write it both ways, I don't know if there is an official, single way to write it.

Here are some excellent links for you:

• Richard's Tea Bag Folding site
• Roz's Tea Bag Site
• Circle of Crafters Site

What I love about paper crafts is that most of them are relatively easy to learn and can be managed on a budget. This is for those who exhibit the self control that is necessary to keep from spending money on all that beautiful paper out there.

In my next post, I will share the basic kite fold and a quick "Fan Card" using this fold.


Enjoy!
Copyright Antonella DeFalco

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