- Feb 9
- 2 min read

Tea Box Print - VLOG

I've spent a few days exploring the printing possibilities offered by a variety of different types of waste packaging.

I felt I was about due for a gelli printing session and I've been saving interesting pieces of cardboard and other materials from going straight into the recycling bin; and my pile was growing and growing so I thought it time to have a go!

In this Vlog I demonstrate the process of taking two prints from the same piece of packaging - which could be anything, I just happen to like the shape of the flattened tea box.

Each print has a distinctly different visual quality, the first one is bold and strong with a 'graphic quality' and the second is more subtle with a more ethereal quality and plenty of grungy bits, known as a 'ghost' print.

I never waste an opportunity to get two prints out of the process where possible, as this often leads to interesting and unplanned results. To keep things simple for the purposes of this video I chose high contrast colours so it's easier to see the differences.

If you're keen to have a go, it's fun to use an already printed background for the first print - I had an A4 sheet that I'd already printed with big simple stripes of green, yellow and Paynes Grey, which was fully dry and ready to re-print.

For the second print, I used off cuts of wet strength tissue paper as I seemed to have plenty lying around! But you could use any type of paper - copy paper, tea bag paper, or Swedish tracing paper or a full A4 sheet of paper.

The resulting prints are perfect for my paper collage stash and they will no doubt surface again at some point in one of my mixed media paintings, though not in their entirety, as I'll just use sections and snippets.