The other night I was sitting there, thinking what to do and spotted my stack of tea bag paper.. i did not feel like drawing, so I played around with other ideas.. i am almost out of my paper string (used for gift wrapping etc) and wondered what kind of sting the tea bags would make.
Well, let's just see, shall we?
I tried it and absolutely love the result!
So many ideas for uses for this gorgeous stuff.
Gift wrapping, of course, but could you imagine a basket woven from this? Or a wall hanging? Or some sort of mat? Or or or.....
I already showed you how I harvest the tea bags, so let's jump right in and see how to make string from the paper.
What you need:
🟢 the prepared tea bags
🟢 a pair of snipps or scissors
🟢 a stick/spindle/crochet hook/something to wind the finished string around. This is optional though and definitely not necessary if you only make short lengths of string.
You start out by making a continuous strip out of the tea bag paper. Fold the paper in half the long way. Then fold in half again. I like to make the creases as sharp as I can, because that will be your cutting guide.
Unfold and cut along the lines as shown in the photo. Stop short about 1/4 inch from the edge, give or take.
Now you are ready to spin string from it. I take the first bit and simply twist it between my fingers until it has a nice twist to it.
Then I continue by rolling this bit down my right thigh with my right hand, while gently holding the rest of the paper in my left hand. If you are lefthanded, you would switch hands. Hold with your right, roll with your left on your left thigh.
When you come to a turn in the paper, be gentle until you have some practice. Here is where it wants to rip until you get the hang of it. It won't take long, I promise, just slow down a bit and watch what you are doing. You can also stop rolling on your thigh and squish the turn a bit to make it go easier. It's not hard, just something that takes practice.
When you come to the end of the tea bag strip, simply grab another one and lay it on top of the first strip. I make sure the new one is sort if on the "inside" of the old one. You get what I mean when you see it. Then keep on rolling.
When you have about 10 inches spun, start wrapping it into the stick, or the crochet hook, or knitting needle and use the needle to continue rolling the string.
I have a paper string tutorial over on my old instagram account, that has a video of how to do this. It might be helpful.
I plied my tea bag string. Which means instead of a single strand, there are two twisted together.
You can do this by either letting the single strand twist back onto itself when you are done (great for short lengths, where you can grab both ends, or you can check out the Andean plying bracelet method. Youtube link. ), or make two strands and twist them together in the opposite direction of the way you twisted the single strands! This is important. Either way you will have to make the singles twice as long as you want the finished string to be. (Either twice as long, or twice the same amount to twist together. Hope this makes sense.)
(My instagram is paused right now, but still open to view for all the tutorials. I am hoping I can go back at one point without feeling guilty about supporting Zuckerberg lol. We will see. I do miss it... )
Hope this helps. Now go make gorgeous paper sting. Tag me if you use this tutorial. I would love to see your creations!
You can find me over on twitter. @sidewalkpirate.
Have fun!
Xo,
B.🐝