Previously I would prepare a baking dish of solution (tea or coffee, usually), dip each page individually, place it onto baking paper in a large foil tray that held two pieces side by side in the oven, then bake them gently until dry and coloured. It would take me all day, with constant vigilance and effort to produce a stack of papers ready for use...
No longer!
I have the prepared tea/coffee solution in a spray bottle, lay out the papers, give them a spritz on one side, leave them for about an hour, turn them over and spray the other side. Then I leave them to air dry for a time. It is pretty warm here still, with the sun out it doesn't take them too long to dry off fairly well, with just some damp patches still evident.
Once they get to that stage I simply gather them up and pop them into a warmish oven directly on the oven rack and leave them for about an hour, turning them over about half time...and that's it.
Once removed from the oven they are deliciously speckled and stained, with the lovely crisp texture caused by the oven drying, and I have only spent minimal time dealing with the production line...a great outcome.
BTW, any left over staining solution keeps well in our spare fridge until the next session. Once I left it for about three months and a small amount of mould had started to develop so I discarded it, but usually I have used it up well before that has a chance to happen.
I may still stain paper the other way from time to time if I want that more uniform and deeper colour, or if I want to simply stain the edges of the pages, but for the journal I am making at present, these papers are just fine.
My two latest hedgie pin cushions...these little darlings are so addictive to keep on making, they use little scraps of left over yarn of any weight and can be completed quickly...however, too many can be an embarrassment I guess. I seem to have run out of people who sew to send them to, so now I must stop making them, sadly. Too many tea cosies is one thing, but a surfeit of knitted quirky pin cushions is another thing entirely...
That's it from me for today,
see you soon,
Di