Double cloth weave with block colours and stripes to create pockets that are filled with
roasted coffee beans.

Culture & Context

I have been working as a part time barista for the past 18 months while also pursuing
my textiles career. In this time, I have fallen in love with the process of making coffee
however there is a huge amount of waste that comes with it. Through this project I
wanted to see how many ways I could utilise waste from the coffee industry and turn it
into a new/ experimental material or process.

This sample was inspired by the process of roasting coffee from green beans to full
roast. There is a beautiful gradient of colour that I have tried to recreate using these
yarns and stripes. I have then alternated which pockets get filled with roasted coffee
beans to create weighted fabric. The pockets filled with roasted beans add a sensory
element to this sample with noise and texture when shook. It also leaves the sample
smelling like coffee interacting with yet another sense – smell.

Process & Production

The process of this material was firstly setting up the loom. When that was complete I
started weaving. This sample focused on using the blocks in this set up ensuring that
Block A was coffee front facing and Block B was cream front facing. There were
multiple weft yarns used for this piece, For the top cloth the first yarn was the green
merino wool from Bart and Francis, then the second was the mustard-yellow merino wool from Bart and Francis, following was the darker brown and then a reddish- burgundy. The bottom cloth weft yarn was the medium brown merino wool. All of the weft yarns used for this sample were naturally dyed merino wool from Bart and Francis who are based in Belgium.

Weaving the striped top weft yarns with the bottom cloth yarn alternating them each
time forms these pockets in each block. After weaving each stripe to its desired length,
I then stuffed the pockets tubes with roasted coffee beans. For the first green stripe, I
only filled Blocks B with coffee beans. I then wove two rows of plain weave to secure
them. For the second yellow strip I only filled block A with coffee beans leaving block B
empty. I alternated this all the way through until my sample for the desired length.

Recipe Details

Loom Set Up :
Double Cloth set up using 16 shafts on a 24 shaft shaft ARM Touch 60 Loom.
Warp 1 & 2 : Galway Wool 1ply – length 4 yards, one dyed with waste coffee grounds
the other was left plain.
Weight : 232g for both.
24epi, 336 ends in total
Width : 14”
Straight draft in blocks AABAABAABAABAA
Material Sample :
A stripe of plain weave using the 1ply Galway wool as the weft across both warps.
Keeping Block A as coffee front facing and Block B cream front facing I wove the two
cloths with alternating weft yarns. Weft yarn 1 was the green merino wool yarn
naturally dyed by Bart and Francis and weft yarn 2 was the brown merino wool yarn.
Each coloured stripe block is 2.5”
Then all the cream warp threads were lifted and Block B was stuffed with roasted
coffee beans. Two rows of plain weave were then woven to secure the beans in the
pocket.
The second block of colour used was the mustard-yellow using the same block set up
and bottom cloth weft as the green stripe. Then all the coffee dyed warp threads were
lifted and Block A was stuffed with roasted coffee beans and two rows of plain weave
were done to secure the beans in the pocket.
The third block of colour used was the darker brown yarn again using the same block
set up and bottom cloth weft yarn. Then all the cream warp threads were lifted and
Block B was stuffed with roasted coffee beans. Two rows of plain weave were then
woven to secure the beans in the pocket.
The fourth block of colour used was the reddish-burgundy and followed the same
process as the ones above, filling block A with coffee beans.
This was then repeated in reverse for the second half of the sample again securing
everything with plain weave at the end.