Tea crafts: Fold an origami teapot!

The finished model, folded with stained-glass origami paper:

Looking for a little creativi-tea? Feeling craf-tea? Here’s a fun project! Fold with foil or other light paper — six-inch square seems to work best, but use whatever size is easiest for you. (You can always fold more!)

Makes a charming bookmark, greeting card decoration, or doll’s teapot.

Or fold several in different colours, then glue a string on the back of each one, loop through a hook, and hang as a decoration on your Christmas tree or anywhere.

Some experience with folding will be helpful. This model starts with a bird base and requires knowlege of the technique of sinking. Once you’ve got those techniques down, the rest of it is easy … follow the images below the instructions. Be sure to have a good cuppa nearby to sustain you while you’re folding.

Model: Teapot
Created by: N. Montero, Spain
Variation by: Janis Badarau (a.k.a. TeaGuide)

Begin with the bird base. (Click here for instructional video of folding a bird base.)

1. Sink the blunt end. (Click here for instructional video of performing a sink fold.)

2. Valley fold the front flap downwards. (Click here for instructional video of valley fold and mountain fold.)

3. Reverse fold the two points as shown. (Click here for instructional video of reverse folding.)

4. Valley fold the top flap of the spout on the left. Mountain fold the handle on the right inwards.

5. Open out the top of the teapot and tuck the point into itself.

6. Valley fold the edges of the spout inwards, then valley fold the bottomflap upwards. At the top you see the point tucked in. Reverse fold the handle again. Spout and handle are finished. Valley fold the bottom flap and tuck the arrowed point into the pocket, following the arrow, to complete the teapot.

You now have a teapot with a flat top. I don’t really care for that, so I created a variation that looked more like a real teapot with a “knob” on the lid.

My variation:

Before tucking the top point into itself (Step 5), valley fold the point about one-third of the way up so the tip stands above the top of the teapot. Flatten the point, refold the original fold that was opened out, and tuck as above to complete the model.

From bird base to the almost-finished teapot.

Here’s how a friend designed a charming greeting card with a teapot folded from a textured silver metallic paper :

Happy folding!

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All content Copyright 2013 JP Badarau; all rights reserved.

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Wow! More tea artists!

I recently profiled an artist who incorporates tea into her paintings for brilliantly colourful and remarkably textured tableaux. Today we’re going to meet a couple of artists whose paintings comprise the essence of tea: just tea and water, with perhaps just a little enhancement.

Read the entire article at English Tea Store blog.

Painting with tea: Tea Dimensional Art

I love crafting with tea, and never tire of designing new ways to incorporate tea into my crafts. I’m also interested in others who use tea in their creative arts. So I was very excited when artist Mary Pagón connected with me about two years ago. I immediately fell in love with her strikingly colourful tea paintings.

Read the entire interview at English Tea Store blog.