Artist paints out of this world Star Wars-inspired scenes on used tea bags
An artist has painted out of this world scenes inspired by the Star Wars franchise on used tea bags.
Everything from popular characters Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca and R2-D2, to the Death Star and lightsabres have been depicted by Caroline West, 50, on her unique canvas of choice.
“I wanted to see exactly how many different things I could capture on such a small canvas and show you can even fit a whole galaxy on a tea bag,” Mrs West, who is based in Waterlooville, Hampshire, told the PA news agency.
“I grew up watching the original Star Wars movies and they’re just so iconic, they were ground-breaking at the time and as May the fourth was coming up, I thought it was the perfect time to pay tribute.”
She then cut them up, scrapped out all the tea and ironed them flat.
The edges were taped, the tea bags were placed on backing paper, a base layer was applied and then she used acrylic paint to create the different scenes.
“For the lightsabres, I tried to give off the impression they were glowing by layering white paint with coloured paints multiple times,” Mrs West said.
“When you were a girl and the films came out, I suppose we all wanted to be Princess Leia so I really enjoyed painting her, especially as I haven’t really done portraits or faces before.
She had fun creating names with tea puns for the artworks, with R2tea2, Brewbacca and Tea3PO, plays on the names of the characters R2-D2, Chewbacca and C-3PO, some of her favourites.
She meticulously planned for the series to make sure what she depicted was as recognisable as possible.
“I’ve also made sure to do some characters from the newer movies, like Kylo Ren.”
Originally delving into tea bag art in August 2023 and focusing on UK landmarks including Stonehenge and Tower Bridge, Mrs West has said it is such an “amazing feeling” to have branched out to painting things she once thought were never possible to capture on such a tiny canvas.
“Sometimes I think, ‘hang on a minute, I’m making a living painting on tea bags’ – it’s such an amazing feeling.”
Mrs West’s Star Wars inspired tea bags are fan art and a limited one-off collection.
Mrs West’s art can be viewed on her website: https://www.carolouiseart.com