Tea time

I thought that I would have finished the small cupboard I began yesterday to post but it is proving a lot trickier than predicted, almost flying out the window twice! 

So here are some photos of one of my first projects, Tea Caddies.

I love antique Georgian style tea caddies and boxes and thought that it would be fun to try to make one. I still hadn't mastered the small gestures needed but as it was only a test for myself and not for 'show', it didn't matter. Here is a small collection of what I did around the same time. I had first found, photoshopped , miniaturised and printed out many different 'Domino Papers' and assorted antique wall papers, mostly taken from an old sales catalogue.

 This was one of the first one, make from card with a card lining and lids. The top nobs are the glass heads of sewing pins cut to fit and glued in place. This card can be sanded so makes a good base.

 In this one you can see the scale, something I don't always think of doing.

 Here I covered it in miniature 'Florentine book end paper', rubbed down and waxed up. The pin head nobs I painted gold.

 I painted the insides ochre yellow and filled them with real tea that I chopped up fine, Black Russian in one side and Orange Peeko in the other.

 Here is a single tea box with a small copper finding and ring with an embroidery thread tassle.

 A view of the interieure before I added the lapsan souchon tea!

 Here is the first one and in front a small one as when I scaled up the first one it seemed too big for a tea box. Tea was expensive back in the 18th century so they didn't keep it in large containers. I then made the smaller one using the same method but taking more time as it is smaller and more fiddly. It measures about 12 mm high.