December 26, 2014
Category Archives: Our Destinations
December 18, 2014
A Look Back At Where We’ve Been
As we end one year and make our way into another, we’re taking this chance to look back and explore the places our collections have taken us. Tea has made it to over many different countries, met hundreds of caring people, learned how to sing and dance and say hello in countless languages. Most importantly, we’ve gathered all the inspiration along our way to share with you. Here’s a look at some places we’ve gone over the past few years. continue reading
December 5, 2014
Introducing Citizen Blue
We’re excited to announce our first collection of Citizen Blue – a semi-annual collection that celebrates the magical spots we stop along the way to somewhere else. Rooted in rich indigo hues, Citizen Blue revisits heritage Tea styles and favorite prints from places we’ve already been and offers new designs inspired by places we’ve seen only glimpses of.
Citizen Blue is a voyager, a nomad. Not quite here or there, the collection draws inspiration from the journey and all of the magical spots we stop along the way to our final destination. It is truly global inspired, as pieces within a single collection range from Japan to Mexico.
Here, we share with you a look behind a few of this season’s designs… continue reading
November 2, 2014
Holiday Musik
The holiday season… A season filled with twinkling lights, hot chocolate, cozy sweaters and music. Did you know that many of the popular Christmas carols you hear in english actually began as German songs? Silent Night was originally written in German and composed by Franz Xaver Gruber with lyrics by Joseph Franz Mohr, sung for the first time in 1818. We’ve rounded up several of our favorite German carols to celebrate the season. Which one is your favorite?
October 15, 2014
Sweet Treats from Around The World
Did you know that Trick-or-Treating is a customary Halloween tradition that began in the late 1940s? The act of going door to door receiving food existed in Great Britain and Ireland where it was known as “souling”. Children (and often the poor) would sing and say prayers for the dead and in return receive cakes.
We thought we’d use this holiday as an opportunity to introduce to you a few sweet German treats. Perhaps you’ll be able to expand your selection of candy for the big day!
September 29, 2014
Collaboration with Blink Blink
“My way of working represents an artistic creative process: irrational, intuitive, inquiring and interwoven. As a designer, however, I reserve the right to always keep the goal in mind and seek for solutions to existing problems. I test, scour, question and reject methods and in the best case new is discovered this way – always challenging the innovation in consideration of the real customers needs.”
Anna Niestroj founded BLINKBLINK in 2012 as an open interactive design studio.
We collaborated with the talented pattern designer Anna Neistroj for our Germany Collection. Here is a little interview with our favorite guest artist.
Where do you live now? In Berlin!
Favorite destination in Germany? Berlin… and surroundings. And any old town in the country.
Favorite destination worldwide? Seasides, Riversides, Lakesides! I wouldn’t prefer a specific place.
Did you always want to be an artist? As a child what career did you want? As a 5 year old: violinist. Soon I wanted to be an entrepreneur: doing things and selling it to people. As my father was an artist I considered myself even so 
Favorite Color? Turquoise
Where do you get your inspiration? From materials, printed matter, the internet, travels and the city I live in (+ people that live here.).
We were thrilled to discover your work while we were researching for our Germany collection. Your collages feel like a contemporary evolution of the Bauhaus artists. Is Bauhaus a strong influence on your work? It makes me happy to read this! I actually didn’t think of bauhaus while I created the collages but I think it still came to me via ‘zeitgeist’ 
left: artwork by Bauhaus artist Gunta Stölzl, right: artwork by Anna Niestroj / Blink Blink
left: artwork by Bauhaus artist Wassily Kandinsky, right: artwork by Anna Niestroj / Blink Blink
Who are some of your favorite contemporary German artists? David Schnell, Katharina Grosse, …
left: artwork by David Schnell, right: artwork by Katharina Grosse
Will you send us a picture of your studio and tell us a little about your typical work day? There is no typical work day, except for being in the studio a lot (experimenting, printing, etc.), using the computer a lot (designing, communications, etc.) and welcoming all sorts of people. I have a fiew clients that I work for repeatingly. But the most jobs I do are on project-base and singular.
some shots of Anna Niestroj / Blink Blink’s inspiring workspace
Emily and Anna in Anna’s Studio/ Anna standing in the doorway to her studio space.
Do you have a cause or charity that is important to you? I think that the place I choose for my studio is a special form of charity. I’m ‘donating’ some color and joy to a pretty rough area / neighborhood. Also I think that ‘Think global, act local.’ is a good leitmotif.
Tea will be making a donation in honor of Anna to himmelbeet, an intercultural community garden in Berlin that focus on organic farming. Here people of all ages come together to garden, build with recycled materials, cook and participate in environmental education workshops.
September 21, 2014
The History of the Cuckoo Clock
We’re all familiar with the distinct sound of the cuckoo clock, but do you know where the cuckoo clock originated?
September 5, 2014
Made to Match
We want to make sure you get the most wear out of your tea pieces. That’s why we’ve created an entire shop dedicated to mixing and matching! Grouped by color palettes, you’ll be able to pick and choose your favorite pieces to create multiple outfits for many seasons to come. Here are a few of our favorite outfits…
August 29, 2014
New Fall Outfits
Texture and color and layers of stripes designed especially for your creative adventurous explorer! Our stylists have put together fall outfits to help make shopping for your little citizen even easier.
August 28, 2014
Inspiring Artists
Gabriele Münter was a German painter who was one of the founding members of the artists’ group, Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”). This organization of artists based in Germany, contributed greatly to the development of abstract art.
Münter was born to an upper middle class family in Berlin. From a very young age, Gabriele knew she wanted to become an artist. In 1898 at age 21, she decided to take a trip to America with her sister to visit family and explore other parts of the world. They traveled around America for over two years, spending the most time in Texas, Arkansas and Missouri. Her childhood and early adulthood greatly impacted her future artistic career.
She led a free and unrestricted life that was not limited by convention, allowing her to experience the world in a way most women were unable to at this time. She began talking classes at the Phalanx School in Munich, where she studied woodcut techniques, sculpture, painting and printmaking. It is here were she met Russian painter, Wassily Kandinsky, who happened to be the school’s director at the time. The two became very close both professionally and personally and ended up traveling widely together before settling again in Germany where they divided their time between Munich and the village of Murnau in the Bavarian Alps.
Our trip to the Die Brücke museum was a very inspiring one. We fell in love with the contrast color palette and knew it was going to be an important story to tell within our own collection.
photo courtesy of paintingstar.com
Make our ‘Gabriele’s Garden’ print your very own by downloading a black and white version and creating you own color scheme! click here for the coloring page