Double cloth weave with block stripes using repurposed green bean coffee bags as yarn. Coffee front facing blocks.

Ethical Making

Experiment

Sustainable

Using the wool warp dyed with waste coffee and an un-dyed wool warp, a double cloth weave set was used to create a series of woven samples inspired by the coffee industry. This particular sample uses yarns from the coffee bags that the green beans arrive in before the coffee beans are roasted. I collected a number of these bags from my local coffee shop and unravelled them to reuse the yarns in my weaves.

Material

Experimental materials
Fiber

Craft

Textiles

General Technique

Constructing

Specific Technique

The technique used for this sample explored playing with the double cloth blocks and
stripes of this set up. This sample had the cream warp front facing in blocks B and the
coffee dyed warp front facing in blocks A. The weft yarns of this piece alternated in
stripes between using a 2ply Galway wool yarn that was naturally dyed with waste
coffee grounds and the unravelled yarn from a finer green coffee bean bag/sack.
There are specs of colour throughout the unravelled coffee bag yarns due to the
original printing on the bags which get split up when unravelled. It has added an
interesting element of colour to the sample.

Properties & Qualities

Application

Sample Making Other

Colour

Brown Green Red White Yellow

Sample Information

Date of creation

June 2023

Dimensions

Length : 7” x Width : 16.5”

Weight

51g

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 large bags that the green beans arrive in before the
beans are roasted. I collected a number of these bags and thought the yarn in them
would be interesting to try and reuse/ repurpose for new weaves and materials. I
unraveled the bags and then wove them into this sample focusing on the sections of
yarns that had colour on them from the printed words and imagery on the original
sacks.

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. The first stripe
was using a 2ply yarn from Galway wool that was naturally dyed with waste coffee
grounds as the weft and then I carefully placed and used the unravelled coffee bag
yarns and the next 1” stripe and this alternated until the sample was my desired
length. The coffee bag yarns used in this piece were much thinner so I bunched them
in groups of 4/5 yarns to get the desired thickness. I trimmed the edges of the coffee
bag weft so that they were all a similar length but also kept some if the length at the
edges to give the sample the frayed edges and texture from the coffee bags.

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 :
Spend some time unravelling the green bean coffee bags/ sacks to get some of your
weft yarn prepared.
A stripe of plain weave using the 2ply Galway wool naturally dyed with coffee as the
weft. Block A is coffee front facing and Block B cream front facing.
1” stripe plain weave using the thinner and lighter weight coffee bag yarn as the weft
(in bunches of 4/5 threads), again keeping Block A is coffee front facing and Block B
cream front facing.
2” stripe of plain weave using the 2ply Galway wool naturally dyed with coffee as the
weft. Block A is coffee front facing and Block B cream front facing.
1” stripe plain weave using the thinner and lighter weight coffee bag yarn as the weft
(in bunches of 4/5 threads), again keeping Block A is coffee front facing and Block B
cream front facing.
2” stripe of plain weave using the 2ply Galway wool naturally dyed with coffee as the
weft. Block A is coffee front facing and Block B cream front facing.
This was repeated until the sample was the desired length finishing the striped pattern
with a larger strip of the 2ply coffee dyed wool.

Credits

Craft Maker

Amy Kerr (AK Textiles)

Library Contributor

National College of Art & Design Ireland

Photographer

Amy Kerr

Practitioner

Amy Kerr

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Double cloth weave with stripes using repurposed green bean coffee bags as yarn.

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