Tender Planet

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Tender Planet by Amy Crook

Tender Planet by Amy Crook

This piece of art was created with theoretically edible ingredients, except of course for the paper. Of course, the tea had been sitting in a dish on my shelf for two days when I made this, so I’m not sure I’d want to have drunk it at that point, but it’s the thought that counts.

I let the tea puddle and gather on the page, and once it started to dry, I moved the tea-soaked salt crystals off the pool in the middle and onto the white page around it. I added a tiny drop of extra tea to the each salt crystal to make a series of satellites around the central circle. The tea had managed to change from when it was fresh-brewed, and a sediment settled out in the denser parts giving it a rough look like a shadow on the surface of a moon or planet. The crystals were brushed gently off once the piece was completely dry, to leave this final image that suggested its name to me the moment I saw it completed.

I think this is my favorite so far of the tea experiments, actually, I love the organic feel of it, nature creating art with only a little bit of human intervention. The slightly larger page size gives the image room to float in the middle like a planet sending its child satellites out to explore space, but not too far just yet.

Tender Planet, 7″x7″ tea and salt on Arches cover white paper.

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Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
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4 Responses to “Tender Planet”

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  1. Paula -Creative Catalyst says:
    May 26, 2011 at 11:12 pm

    Very cool, Amy . . . I love working with tea . . . have you ever tried using hibiscus tea? It’s awesome!

    p.s. I ate paper in grade school (no idea why, but I remember I did -LOL)

  2. Amy says:
    May 26, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    Thank you! I’ve never tried hibiscus, this set of pieces was my first tea experiment. I’ll have to see if I have a sample of it to try next, I can imagine the red is gorgeous.

    (You were in grade school, isn’t that reason enough?)

  3. Paula -Creative Catalyst says:
    May 28, 2011 at 6:10 am

    LOL — yes, good point, probably around the same time as eating paste
    Have fun with the hibiscus 🙂

  4. Amy says:
    May 28, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Thanks! I actually found a sample sachet of hibiscus tea in my stash, so I’ll brew that up sometime soon and play around.