Keep your tea bags!

How many cups of tea do you have dur­ing a day? And if you are in an office how many tea bags do you think get put into the bin at the end of the day? Even if you only use one tea bag a day don’t throw it away, keep it because there are some spe­cial people loc­ated in the Imizamo Yethu informal set­tle­ment in Cape Town who could really turn your old tea bag into some­thing special.

"Original T-Bag Designs is a col­lect­ive of artists who live in an informal set­tle­ment in Hout Bay, South Africa. With recycled tea bags as their canvases they are paint­ing them­selves out of poverty".

If you haven’t yet heard of the Original T-Bag Designs then you are miss­ing out, this is such a unique and cre­at­ive way of job cre­ation and util­iz­ing the cre­ativ­ity of people ...

Founded more than 11 years ago by Jill Heyes who had moved to South Africa from England as after see­ing the poverty in the “informal set­tle­ment” of Imizamo Yethu she wanted to help and make a dif­fer­ence in the lives of the people. She began to teach some of the women basic craft skills and after some unsuc­cess­ful attempts to sell paper mache and potato print­ing products their per­sever­ance kept them try­ing until they came up with some­thing fabulous.

In 2000 the Original T-Bag Designs came to fruition. But what is this you are ask­ing? These ladies from Imizamo Yethu, who are now in work­ing in sus­tain­able jobs, some­thing that most people don’t take a second look at a used tea bag and cre­ate high qual­ity art­work in the form of greet­ing cards, art­work and other products. It is also a fant­astic ini­ti­at­ive as it flies the “Proudly South African” banner.

The ladies from the com­munity have now become skilled and tal­en­ted artists and employ some of the mem­bers of the Imizamo Yethu com­munity who have dis­ab­il­it­ies to assist with the mak­ing of these products. The Original T-Bay Designs is now another des­tin­a­tion that any­one who lands on Cape Town soil should make their way to because it is a fine example of what can be achieved with hard work, per­sever­ance and a com­munity spirit.

Original T-Bag Designs’ products can be pur­chased at the stu­dio in Hout Bay in the Western Cape as well as from Hout Bay’s Mainstream Shopping Centre and at the V&A Waterfront’s Blue Shed Stall.

The Original T-Bay Design is now send­ing out a call to one and all to help them make their Christmas wish come true. And this is where we can all help. They would like to col­lect 50 000 used tea bags that they envis­age will be used by the end of the year as they have huge orders for their very pop­u­lar tea bag angels.

These angels are made from the tea bags, which are dried and emp­tied and ironed and together with string cre­ate a very lovely skirt for the angel.

So the next time you have a cuppa using a tagged tea bag, please remem­ber to save, dry, empty and send it to Original T-Bag Designs!

Let's see if we can help this worthy pro­ject meet their tar­get. Save those tea bags and send them as soon as pos­sible so we can make their Christmas wish come true.

Send your Tea Bags to:
Original T-bag Designs
Unit 4 Kronendal Business Park
Main Road, Hout Bay, Cape Town.
Telephone: +27 (0)21 790‑0887.
Website: http://www.originaltbagdesigns.com/

Photographs from and © Original T-Bag Designs