Shoutout to the prop master on that indie shoot in Austin who showed me how to distress leather with a cheese grater and coffee grounds.

I was trying to make a 19th century journal look authentically worn, and after watching her work for an hour, I realized the best aging comes from combining simple household items, not expensive specialty tools.

3 comments

3 Comments

mila_mitchell3mo ago

Read a blog post about using tea bags to stain paper. Gives it a nice yellowed look without being too uniform. The cheap stuff works just as well as fancy artist tea.

mason.paige25d ago

Cheap stuff works just as well" - you got that right. I tried this with some fancy Earl Grey my sister left at my house once and it barely did anything. Then I used a bag of the cheap store brand black tea and it came out way better. I actually messed up one time and left the tea bag sitting on the paper too long. It soaked through and made a big dark circle. Had to cut that part out and start over. But hey, that uneven look is part of the charm, right? What kind of paper do you use for this? I've only tried it on printer paper so far.

margaretf403mo ago

My old sketchbook got that look from leftover breakfast tea.