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The coffee filters are used as a collage material with many different steps involved in completing a "kimono". The filters, given to me by over 25 local coffee drinkers, come dried in varying colors, densities, saturations and sizes.
Each filter is brushed clean, emptied of most coffee grounds, ironed flat and painted with a coat of polymer media to protect the surface. I sew different stitches on the tops of each filter to add texture, color and strength to the final piece. Each cleaned, coated and stitched filter is laid onto a kimono form, which has been cut out from interfacing and has been covered on one side with unused flat basket coffee filters. On these round basket filters I print abstract patterns with a photocopy machine to give a different color and texture to the inside of the kimono. Laying each stained coffee filter onto the kimono form in a unique and attractive pattern involves much measuring and time, but once configured, I can set each piece down permanently with a hot glue gun. The visible threads at the ends of each filter are stitched through the three layers, knotted, and then dabbed with a small amount of polymer media. To embellish certain seams or filter patterns, I often add gold or silver leafing, buttons or staples directly to the filters. Once completed, each kimono takes on a unique shape, style and tone, that is always very different from the last one.
Although I haven't been a coffee drinker for years, the organic quality of used coffee filters has intrigued me as an art material since 1993. The naturally subdued and earth toned colors, the arbitrary patterns of the coffee stains and their recyclable element all make the filters an attractive material to use. I use a variety of stained coffee filters, collected from over 25 coffee drinkers, as different color paints. "Creating" is part of who I am. My primary artistic medium has evolved over the course of my life, but coming from an early fashion focus, "designing" new forms, shapes, and visions for kimonos and other three dimensional sculptures from coffee filters feels familiar and spiritually satisfying.
The inspiration for my work comes primarily from observing my surroundings. My eyes are attracted to the lines, juxtapositions and shapes found in nature, architectural elements or just everyday objects. These shapes, angles, and designs I observe translate into possibilities for my work, which can either start after making small sketches or simply by laying out the filters and experimenting with various patterns and designs.
Growing up in the Netherlands I was exposed to handiwork and textiles at an early age, taking particular interest in embroidery, fabric design, hand-made paper and multi-media fabric art. This early interest drove my further exploration into the vast possibilities for textile medium and design. The Dutch landscape set under expansive blue skies and surrounded by the blue waves of the North Sea was calming and quite transfixing to me as a young girl. The organic, oriental nature of my present work recreates many of these feelings, even in the different environment of California where I now live.
