Tea Staining bones

wolftea:

A long overdue post with simple ways to stain your bones. Most bones after soaking and being cleaned in a peroxide bath will have whitened a bit… some people strive for the pristine aesthetic of white bones, i on the other hand like slight natural colors and hues… so i after cleaning and processing bone, i add another step of staining them. 
 
All you will need is 
– a container that will properly fit your bones and liquids 
– bones
– any herb/tea/spice/flower or coffee bean you wish to stain with. 
  This is incredibly versatile, you can use anything to stain!
– patience
– a towel
– hot water

STEP 1 

– place bones into your container ( you can use glass bowls, mason jars etc) 

STEP 2
– choose your stain and throw some in, the measurements are all up to you… the more you put in= the more potent the hue. 
I use old tea bags ( usually 2-3) , old coffee grounds etc…. it is important to make note to use dried herbs… if you use flower petals or even old coffee grounds, you will want to air dry them first ( in my experience it gives more potency and color)

STEP 3 
 – Fill the container up with hot water, making sure to submerge all of your bones ( if some float, just keep poking them down) 

STEP 4
– Allow the bones to sit within the stain anywhere from 3 hours- overnight. Make sure not to let them sit for more than a night or two, they can start to mold if you are neglectful. 

– You can keep repeating the soaking process until the bones are your desired color. If you do plan on more soaks, make sure you have air dried your bones before soaking again, if the bones are wet and waterlogged, they wont absorb much more color. 

Below is a photo of three common stains i use 
– tea ( any tea bags i could find) 
– old coffee grounds 
– and lavender. 

This photo was taken after about 3 hours soaking.

Soaking some misc jaws in a tiny jar of tea 

A collection of bones straight out of coffee grounds, you can see that each bone takes the stain different depending in how porous, how old, how young and how much of the elements they have had to battle. 
This batch was soaked for about 9 hours.

You can use sooooo many easily acquirable herbs and materials for staining. 
some of my favorites  
– turmeric with a dash of clove ( bright yellow with a small bit of brown) 
– lavender with hibiscus petals ( deep purple pink if soaked a few times) 
– black tea 
– dried rose petals with hibiscus ( reddish, pink) 
– beets ( pinkish) 
– ground juniper berry 
– blackberry 
– raspberry 

and sooooo many more! 
Hope you all find this useful ❤