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Tea Bag Folding

Tea bag folding is a paper craft that originated in Holland, where many tea bags come wrapped individually in paper packets. By cutting each bag down to a square, the bags can be folded and then combined into a geometric shape, just like in 2D modular origami. These medallions can be used to decorate handmade greeting cards, embellish your wrapped gifts, or you could try adding a hanging loop (glue the units together first!) to make an unusual Christmas decoration.
 teabag folding
Don’t let the name ‘tea bag folding’ put you off - you can perform this craft with any small squares of coloured paper. To give a more authentic result, the squares should be patterned, and each square should have the same pattern. There are many online resources that provide printable sheets of repeating patterns to cut into squares, and fold diagrams to produce different shapes. Google ‘tea bag folding’ and you will find many more links than I have provided here.
 
I’m going to demonstrate one fold pattern here to give you an idea of the method - hopefully it will inspire you to look more closely at this fairly obscure papercraft…
 

If you are printing your tea bag papers, cut them into squares, otherwise assemble 8 squares of origami paper. You can use squares of any size; here I have used 1.5″ (3.8cm) squares:teabag folding

For each square, place it patterned side up. Valley fold in half diagonally (remember to crease all folds sharply):
teabag folding

Open up and valley fold along the other diagonal. Now mountain fold the square in half:
teabag folding

Open up again and you will be able to fold the square down into a triangle along the creases you have just made - the basic fold is now complete. Take 2 of your triangles and slot them together so the points are interleaved:
teabag folding

Continue to add triangles to assemble the shape. They will not stay together unless you glue them down; you can glue them as you go, or assemble them very carefully and then glue them all together at the end.
teabag folding

Here is the completed basic medallion:
teabag folding

For a more interesting variant, valley fold each of the two front points of the triangle up to meet the top point. This will leave you with the triangle shape with a diamond shape on top. Interleave the units as before:
teabag folding

By varying the order of assembly, you can create different patterns. The medallion on the left (below) is formed by interleaving one unit above, one unit below, around the circle. The medallion on the right is formed so each unit is half over and half under the neighbouring units:
teabag folding

It’s as simple as that! If you try tea bag folding, or you’re already an expert, we’d love to see your work! Please upload your pics to the Folding Trees Flickr group.
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Posted: October 29th, 2008 under Folding Trees Tutorials, Origami.
Comments: 7

Comments

Comment from Jorge
Time: October 29, 2008, 9:32 am

Wow, this project looks like a lot of fun. I love the design and the patterns. I am sure they will make great decorations!

Comment from Jenn
Time: November 1, 2008, 3:33 pm

This would be perfect for halloween candy wrappers!

Comment from Andrea
Time: November 3, 2008, 1:11 pm

What a fascinating idea.
Love your site. Great to get my daily eye-candy and craft inspirations.

Pingback from Art loves Craft » Blog Archive » Tea bag folding, round one
Time: November 18, 2008, 4:08 am

[...] was this post over on Folding Trees that inspired me to try the fine art of tea bag folding.  I liked the idea [...]

Comment from Silvia Mabie
Time: November 25, 2008, 9:49 pm

Hi there,

Just wanted to let you know that you have some awesome tutorials…since trying a folding technique last week I have been obsessed with Origami! Thank you so much for the great instructions!

Pingback from Art loves Craft » Blog Archive » Tea-bag folded star: Complete!
Time: December 10, 2008, 1:46 am

[...] star is now adorning our little potted holiday tree.  I like these stars! I might make more.  The tutorial is from folding trees,  and I stopped my sproinging-apart issues with four little embroidery floss [...]

Pingback from Master Folder « The Daily Skein
Time: December 22, 2008, 11:58 pm

[...] trip to the mall) by trying my hand at paper folding.  Specifically, tea bag folding from this tutorial on Folding Trees.  Tea bag folding came from Holland and can make some pretty cool looking things.  I [...]

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