“Imagination is the only weapon
in the war against reality.”
-Alice in Wonderland
This is the story about how this blog began…
Once upon a time, about 5 years ago, I was exploring the internet using an app called
StumbleUpon (it randomizes websites based on your interests so you can find new, and cool stuff) and it revealed a gem to me; a project called Book. Four guys, 2 in Brooklyn and 2 in Belfast, had passed a sketchbook back and forth between them for nearly a year. They each had 5 days to complete a full page spread in response to the one ahead of it before mailing the book along to the next one. Take a look at the website, it’s interesting, playful, and revealing.
I immediately fell in love with the concept and considered organizing my own. The first artist I asked turned me down without a second thought. I guess he was too busy to try it or wasn’t interested in paying for the mailing costs. I put the idea on the back burner for a bit and eventually I wondered if it might be more practical to do it directly online in a blog format.
I remember talking to Jen Bunt (one of the original collaborators, AKA Niffer) and cooking up the concept of an ongoing creative collaborative blog. It would be more than only visual art and should flow similarly to the way you’d have a conversation at a tea/coffee house. And then, maybe because I’m an avid feminist, we figured why not make it an all woman affair? Book was all men so this one could be all women. We’ll add another constraint of having only one representative from each city in order to encourage ourselves to branch out around the world by not limiting our focus to only 1 or 2 cities.
One woman per city in a network of women woven like a tapestry clear across the globe. The blog was dubbed Empress Tea. Empress, for the strength and power of each female who has claimed their city, and Tea, for the the casual “tea party” nature of our continuous sharing of creative expressions, opinions, & passions. A New Beginning, A New Global Community is the first post I started with and it clearly expresses our goals for sharing, being, and creating.
We are currently low on Empresses (oh no!), new members are welcome to apply! Send us a sample of your work to info@empresschic.com. Need more incentive to become an Empress? Read the handy infographic below… 10 handy reasons to join the Empress Tea Blog!
If you’re thinking “Wow! I seriously love this blog but I don’t have time in my hectic life to join it.” then you can support us by following us on Twitter or Facebook and by clicking on the links and sharing our creativity with your friends. We love love love to hear from our readers in the comments section too. So leave us a message if you’d like to inspire us, to tell us one of your stories, or challenge some of our opinions. Happy sharing!
