Shopping for shiny

   

This past Friday I went shopping. As you can see from the few photos here, it was quite the experience! Woke pretty early in the morning and  arrived on site by noon. The line was out the doors and so I stood outside, and waited until the line filtered through registration. The first few tables were amazing, shiny things galore! But I had my sights set on a certain size and weight. 

I was shopping for charms to go on infusers. Yes, I do make glass lampwork charms as well, but some people prefer stone. I wanted to make sure that I had enough variety of colors, shapes, styles and weights. I think I managed pretty well, lots of jaspers, agates, colors and shapes. Along with some amazing tigers eye and ocean jasper beads. I'm truly excited to bring these into the world! 



You can find my infusers (complete with charms) over on Etsy. Here's a sneak peek of some of the ones I'm listing soon!

Inspiration: Awaken

Awaken.

This tea was created for someone that didn't want to drink as much coffee, but still loved the caffeine. The blend itself is a base of roasted mate and a mix of vanilla and honey black teas. Roasted mate has a very high caffeine content while still being an herbal. Cinnamon was added to bring out the sweet notes of the mate, vanilla and honey.
This tea is best with a touch of milk and sugar. 

Find it here on etsy.

Inspiration: Dischordia Tea

Dischordia tea was based on Dischoria of Pandora Celtica, a member of the Fall Court and Court Archivist for the Fae Courts in general. When teas began rolling around in my mind I asked Dischordia what she enjoys in a tea. The list was incredibly long but also incredibly helpful. 

She wanted green tea, rosemary too. She listed over a dozen ingredients that she was interested in me using. I did my best. What you see in today's blend is a mixture of her ideas and my own. Green tea, ginger, rosemary, peppermint...

This is a spectacular blend that tastes great both hot and cold!

Find it on etsy.

Photos: Tea Tins

These tins were incredibly limited edition, only for Kickstarter backers of the very first Drayd Tea Kickstarter. Only, I made a few extra.... So they're on Etsy!
These are the only tins with Dryad Tea stickers like these, and they will never be available like this again.

Inspiration: Nessa Tea

Nessa; the darling, amazing, petite Nixie of Pandora Celtica...  She was quite an adventure to blend tea for. I wanted something different, something with pizzazz that was also soothing and fun to drink. 

I had to take into account her love for life, her cheer and many other great qualities about her when coming up with this blend.

I ended up with a green and black tea blend, chock full of Vitamin C and antioxidants. Orange and jasmine are the two strongest notes in the blend but there's also rosehips, heather and other yummy things.

Find it on etsy.

Inspiration: Selkie Tea

This tea happened before its name did. I wanted a tea that was good for vocalists, a tea that tasted and smelled good, and a tea that would be good hot or cold.

First things first, lots of ginger and then some lemon. I chose green tea as opposed to black, for the more calming and antioxidant properties of the tea.

After making the blend I had to choose a name, the name "Selkie" came about quite by accident. I didn't want to think about saltwater, or anything of that sort with a selkie. I found that I could really imagine them all having afternoon tea together with their seal skins draped across their laps, shoulders or tied about their waists. I knew they would keep them close while enjoying tea in the sun.

It's one of Nessa's personal favorites.

You can find this tea on etsy.

Photos: Tea Infusers

Some of the tea infusers that can be found over at Dryad Tea!

These infusers were created with the idea of *not* losing the infuser into your tea cup when steeping loose leaf teas. Some are handmade lampwork that I have create myself, others are gorgeous gemstones that I've collected over the years.