Hand-braided tea flowers and lithography painted with earth-based pigments
For Christmas, LA.BR offers tea flowers hand-braided by craftsmen in the Yunnan Province of China in a box with an original lithography by Marta Abbott, painted with pigments found in nature. The cases are manufactured in a limited edition.
It's a family business for several generations who collects the flowers by hand and braided them. To make a tea flower is a delicate art: it is a matter of braiding together an edible flower like a lily, a jasmine or a carnation with fresh tea flowers of the same size, to make a cocoon. The mix of various plant dispose of combined medicinal virtues that gradually diffuse scents when the braiding artistically unwinds to let the flower appear in boiling water.
The American artist wanted to illustrate the blooming process, the unconspicuous color modification and progressive fragrance release: she prepared her own inks using all natural ingredients like anemone, indigo, marigold, onion skins, oxidised copper and tea. In addition to the litography and the tea flowers, the box includes a blown glass carafe, specifically designed to let guests appreciate the vision of the tea flower emerging from the cocoon.
Photos © LA.BR
Thursday 16 December 2021, 05:02
