"363 Days of Tea" by Ruby Silvious

Could you use a little art and inspiration in your life this week? If so, I am delighted to recommend a new book I recently ordered thanks to an Amazon gift card my sister gave me for my birthday. It's the book 363 Days of Tea by Ruby Silvious, and it chronicles the author's 2015 project of creating a new piece of artwork each day for a year with a used tea bag serving as her canvas. I've seen a few projects like various "dresses" that incorporated used tea bags, but Silvious has taken tea bag art to an entirely new level!

Tea lovers will enjoy this book for its tea information as well as for the beautiful artwork. For instance, I enjoyed examining all the hang tags and noting which teas I have tried and which I have not. Silvious has also made me consider my lowly tea bags in a new light. Have you ever thought about which tea bags have the most distinctive stains? Or which teas stick to the bags? She writes, "Over time, I learned the different tea bag shapes and constructions as well as the kinds of stains different teas produce. For instance, chamomile tea leaves stick to the tea bag paper, making them difficult to remove. Some green, white and herbal teas don't stain at all, so I reserve these for painting portraits. When going for distinct contrasts, I use black and rooibos-stained tea bags because they produce the best stains by far."

If you'd like to see a sample of the elegant artwork in this lovely book, click here.