Instant Coffee and Tea Stain (follow-up)

I had a follow-up question to my comments about tea staining. Someone was having problems with "water spots" on their basket after they had applied the stain. Here is how I addressed that issue.

"Weavers Words" Vol. 4 Iss. 16
Date Sent: June 28, 2000

I have had problems similar to what you are describing. It usually occurs on large baskets or in conditions where the basket is drying before it is completely saturated with the stain. I have found that if I stain the inside of the basket first and then the outside I will get better results and if there are any areas that appear to be drying too quickly I will re-wet them with the tea stain. I believe what is happening is that as one side dries the newly applied stain to the opposite side soaks/runs through the weaving and gives parts of the basket a double dose of color. If a basket has dried blotchy I will heavily sprayed it with clear water, which will wash off a good portion of the color lightening up the entire basket. As I said in an early posting about tea dying I actually prefer some color variation as it more closely resembles an old basket, which is what I am trying to simulate with the coloring in the first place.