Chinese tea · hairlines, discs, data dots
The leaf sits at the centre of the instrument
Thirty-four Chinese teas drawn as diagrams: a hairline grid, concentric circles, a gradient disc behind the leaf and the name repeated around the whole border.
Chinese tea · hairlines, discs, data dots
Thirty-four Chinese teas drawn as diagrams: a hairline grid, concentric circles, a gradient disc behind the leaf and the name repeated around the whole border.
3 teas · 3 categories
Each page is a made-up instrument with a real subject at the centre of it. The grid, the circles, the radial rays and the coloured dots are all one hairline weight, so the drawing stays quiet enough to sit under a photograph rather than over it. The gradient disc behind the leaf is the only large gesture, and it carries the tea's own temperature: navy to amber for a dark ripe pu-erh, blue through coral to pale yellow for a white bud. Repeating the name around all four margins turns the type into the frame, which means the page can be read from any edge — a habit worth having when a name exists in pinyin, hanzi and translation at once. Chinese tea rewards being measured: water temperature, leaf weight, steep time and infusion count are numbers people actually compare. Drawing that as an instrument is more honest than drawing it as a mood. The dots stand in for readings, and the leaf stands for itself.