Skip to content

WELCOME TO OUR STORE

SUPPORT OUR WORK

  • HOME
  • MAGAZINE
    • CURRENT ISSUE
    • BACK ISSUES
    • FIND SELVEDGE
    • ORDER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • FOR YOURSELF
    • FOR SOMEONE ELSE
    • FOR AN INSTITUTION
    • FOR STUDENTS
    • SUBSCRIBER ACCESS
    • SUBSCRIBER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SHOP
    • SELVEDGE GOODS
    • ARTISAN GOODS
    • MAGAZINES
    • WORKSHOPS
    • TALKS
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • BOOKS
    • ORDER FAQs
    • CONTACT US
  • LEARN
    • BOOK A WORKSHOP
    • BOOK A TALK
      • UNCUT CLOTH
    • LISTEN TO A TALK
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • TRAVEL WITH US
    • EVENT FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • ARTISANS
    • SHOP
      • ALL
      • CLOTHING
      • INTERIORS
      • ACCESSORIES
      • TOYS
    • EXPLORE
    • ACCESS TALKS
    • WATCH SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO PLAYLIST
    • CONTACT US
  • COMMUNITY
    • READ OUR BLOG
    • JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
    • SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO A PODCAST
    • VISIT A TEXTILE COLLECTION
    • SEE AN EXHIBITION
    • ENTER A PRIZE DRAW
    • MAKE A PROJECT
    • CONTACT US
  • COLLABORATE
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
    • WORK WITH US
    • WRITE FOR US
    • WRITE FOR THE BLOG
    • BECOME A STOCKIST
    • CONTACT US
    • SEE ARTISAN INFO
  • STORY
    • READ OUR STORY
    • GET TO KNOW US
    • READ ABOUT US
    • CONTACT US
Log in
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Selvedge Magazine
  • HOME
  • MAGAZINE
    • CURRENT ISSUE
    • BACK ISSUES
    • FIND SELVEDGE
    • ORDER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SUBSCRIBE
    • FOR YOURSELF
    • FOR SOMEONE ELSE
    • FOR AN INSTITUTION
    • FOR STUDENTS
    • SUBSCRIBER ACCESS
    • SUBSCRIBER FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • SHOP
    • SELVEDGE GOODS
    • ARTISAN GOODS
    • MAGAZINES
    • WORKSHOPS
    • TALKS
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • BOOKS
    • ORDER FAQs
    • CONTACT US
  • LEARN
    • BOOK A WORKSHOP
    • BOOK A TALK
      • UNCUT CLOTH
    • LISTEN TO A TALK
    • MEET THE MAKER
    • TRAVEL WITH US
    • EVENT FAQS
    • CONTACT US
  • ARTISANS
    • SHOP
      • ALL
      • CLOTHING
      • INTERIORS
      • ACCESSORIES
      • TOYS
    • EXPLORE
    • ACCESS TALKS
    • WATCH SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO PLAYLIST
    • CONTACT US
  • COMMUNITY
    • READ OUR BLOG
    • JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
    • SLOW TV
    • LISTEN TO A PODCAST
    • VISIT A TEXTILE COLLECTION
    • SEE AN EXHIBITION
    • ENTER A PRIZE DRAW
    • MAKE A PROJECT
    • CONTACT US
  • COLLABORATE
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
    • WORK WITH US
    • WRITE FOR US
    • WRITE FOR THE BLOG
    • BECOME A STOCKIST
    • CONTACT US
    • SEE ARTISAN INFO
  • STORY
    • READ OUR STORY
    • GET TO KNOW US
    • READ ABOUT US
    • CONTACT US
Log in Cart

Item added to your cart

Access Denied
IMPORTANT! If you’re a store owner, please make sure you have Customer accounts enabled in your Store Admin, as you have customer based locks set up with EasyLockdown app. Enable Customer Accounts
AN ODE TO THE TEA TOWEL

AN ODE TO THE TEA TOWEL

December 28, 2021
Share

I’d like us all to take a moment to celebrate the humble Tea Towel.

They should be so boring, so mundane, yet, they have been commandeered into statement pieces. The ones we choose ourselves or the ones that we are gifted say an awful lot about who we are—far more than their lowly raison d'être would warrant. I’d wager you could tell almost as much about a person from their tea towel collection as rifling through their bin.

Whether you are someone whose tea towels are tastefully and carefully coordinated with your kitchen, or someone who once, twenty years ago, mentioned in passing how great frogs are and now find that, two decades on, everything including your tea towels has frogs on and you are rueing the day the words passed your lips.

Or maybe you collect one on every trip you go on, each place visited commemorated in a rectangular piece of cloth.

Comedic tea towels with witty reference to your preference for a G&T? Or a slightly rude tea towel perhaps?

;

Image: Radical Tea Towel's A Woman Here Has Registered to Vote tea towel

Beautiful hand-printed tea towels by your favourite maker or artist? Or too wonderful to use for their intended purpose?

Tongue twisters or limericks to entertain during home economics?

Image: Selvedge's new subscriber gift of Molly Mahon tea towel set

Perhaps your tea towel represents your true feelings, your beliefs and passions? My go-to place for inspirational tea towels is Radical Tea Towels, a fabulous small, family-run British company. I’m confident my tea towels say a lot about me and I will let you draw your own conclusions from that!

So, next time you are drying up, or drying your hands upon the humble tea towel, give it a second thought and celebrate what it says about you.

Written by Hester Thorp, Customer Service lead at Selvedge.

--

Members of our lovely Selvedge team have taken the time to write a festive blog post each for us this year. It's thanks to all their hard work that we're able to do what we do. Cheers to them!

Back to blog

3 comments

Who new the tea towel had so much meaning . Love stories like this . Thankyou

Audrey PageJanuary 10, 2022

This article certainly brought home to me how I pick my tea towels…. ususally for absorbancy quality and usually check BUT PINK… whilst utilitarian by nature I chose PINK, so I do make a statement after all……. it brightens my day keeps harmony in my kitchen and makes wiping dishes that more appealing…. always kept in top pristine condition by hot washes, none of those threadbare grey so called teatowels in my kitchen……. BUT what am I going to do now ….. a new kitchen promises no more drying of dishes with a DISHWASHER…. NEVER will I be without a good utilitarian PINK teatowel in my kitchen. Keep your Kath Kidson, Orla Kiely or Emma Bridgewater nothing beats my utilitarian PINK check teatowels.

Penny HooperJanuary 10, 2022

I read your article about the Finnish Raanu weaves and just wanted you to know that I still weave them here in USA. I moved from Finland 1970 after attending a weaving school for a year and have mostly woven typical Finnish techniques. I love weaving Raanu since it is like painting with yarn but then you play with the colors and patterns. After living in New Mexico I realized how similar Sami weaving is to Native American weaving.
Hopefully this technique will come back just like Rya weaving has started to return.

Inger SeitzJanuary 10, 2022

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.

Invalid password
Enter

Quick links

  • SEARCH
  • ABOUT US
  • T&Cs
  • FAQs

Subscribe to our newsletter by entering your email address below. "I just wanted to say how much I admire your informative and inspirational newsletters - I always look forward to them!" Tricia, San Rafael, USA

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
Payment methods
  • American Express
  • Diners Club
  • Discover
  • Maestro
  • Mastercard
  • Visa
© 2023, Selvedge Magazine Powered by Shopify
  • Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.