COFFEE & TEA Lu Ding 10.2013
BRIEF OF THE PROJECT
The aim for this Furniture Fair project is to highlight a problem with unwanted materials (weeds & waste materials) that causes major problems for society on a local and global scale. Your mission in this project will be to investigate techniques & the material to create something desirable out of the undesirable. Main materials to use in the object are solid wood & rope/fibber made out of unwanted materials (You choose if You want to work with Water Hyacinth or create ropes made out of other �problem materials�). (Additional materials are ok.) Your object should be possible to produce by other craftsmen in other locations, and the material possible to change depending on local material assets.
CHOSEN MATERIALS
I choose to mainly work with coffee grounds and tea bags, because coffee break and tea time is universal, everyone has personal associations to them. There is a big amount of waste everyday, but people are not aware of it. And actually they are very useful materials for different purpose. My goal is to arouse people's awareness of making the last use of objects around us, using coffee grounds and tea bags is just a starting point. Because I think everyone creates the environmental problem, and it has to be solved by effort from all of us, not only designers. In order to reach that, I want to draw people's attention, highlight the beauty of the material, the story behind them and share the knowledge of using them in different ways.
RELATED PROJECT
Helena Hansson is a Doctoral student in design at the School of Design and craft (HDK) in Gothenburg. Her research is connected to Mistral Urban Futures local research platform in Kisumu, Kenya (KLIP) (www.mistraurbanfutures.se) MUF work with sustainable urban development and has nodes in Kisumu-Shanghai, Cape Town Gothenburg and Manchester. Their core values are green dense fair. In her research she investigates ways of creating possibilities for the local crafts community to develop and be empowered for a positive social change. The main focus is to create a learning platform for collaborative knowledge production between different stakeholders from business, academy and society.
OVERVIEW OF POTENTIAL PARTNERS
Coffee industry and tea industry is one of the world’s most valuable agricultural commodities. The main links within the coffee and tea supply chain include: Growers Intermediaries Processors Government agencies Exporters Dealers/Brokers Roasters Retailers
THE USEFULNESS OF COFFEE GROUNDS
1. Soften skin 2. Please the flowers 3. Sadden the ants 4. Deter gastropods 5. Simplify fireplace cleaning 6. Make a sepia dye 7. Keep cats at bay 8. Stub cigarettes out 9. Add extra taste & texture to baked goods 10. Encourage the carrots
THE USEFULNESS OF TEA BAGS
1. Tame stings and burns 2. Soothe eyes 3. Feed the garden 4. Boost potted plants 5. Quell the cat box smell 6. Eliminate other pet odours 7. Freshen the carpet 8. Treat the dog 9. Freshen mats and beds 10. Save the fridge 11. Wash your hands 12. Deodorize kitchen surfaces
THE COFFEE PRODUCTION AND POTENTIAL PARTNERS
A coffee worker's wage is extremely low. In Kenya, coffee workers earn about US$12 per month, while the legal minimum wage is 3 - 4 times that amount. Middle class family and hotel in Kenya consume coffee. Kenya is also one of the biggest provider of Starbucks, whose mission & goal is offering front-of-store recycling in all of its companyowned coffee shop by 2015. They have invested many different project in 2012 and 2013, and most of them are in scientific area.
When it comes to individual consumers, it's generally a long journey for beans and leaves to travel from exotic climes to the kitchen. So people may as well honor them with some extra chores before throwing them to the trash.
THE TEA INDUSTRY AND POTENTIAL PARTNERS
Tea is a major cash crop that is grown in Kenya. In Kenya, tea is ranked as the third major foreign exchange earner, behind tourism and horticulture. They also drink a lot of tea, they have tea time every day in Kenya. Tea in Kenya is controlled by different institutes and government bodies. In 2011 the TBK and Egerton University entered into a partnership to strengthen tea industry in Kenya. They drafted a curriculum that will offer undergraduate, postgraduate, certificates and diplomas in tea production & marketing and tea processing technology & management.
Based on this information, there are some aspects I can address in my design: 1. Communicate workers' situation to customers, encourage empowed customers influence the production/industry in return. 2. Create value for actors (like: tea & coffee holder in Kenya, hotel in Kenya, Starbucks), and use their resources to reach the public. 3. Share the knowledge of using the waste to get everyone's effort into the environmental problems.
EXISTING PROJECTS There are mature products made from coffee grounds existing in the market, like the picture showed. The technique of creating the material is a patent. Tea bags are used to create some pieces of art.
INSPIRATION FROM TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUE Rammed earth, is a technique for building walls using the raw materials of earth, chalk, lime and gravel. It is an ancient building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainable building materials and natural building methods.
1. Watchtower in China, in Han Dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) 2. Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Stateburg, South
Rammed-earth buildings are found on every continent except Antarctica, in a range of environments that includes the temperate and wet regions of northern Europe, semiarid deserts, mountain areas and the tropics. The availability of useful soil and a building design appropriate for local climatic conditions are the factors that favour its use.
INITIAL CONCEPT Initial concept is to have a piece of furniture in public space as both a tool for collecting coffee waste/ tea waste from individual consumers, and sharing the knowledge of how to make the last use of this waste.
1.Manpower for pressing 2.Chocolate-shape chocolate 3.Simple guide about how to use
In order to get people easily involved, one idea is that the tool can turn coffee ground into the shape of chocolate (using the traditional technique of rammed earth), because people has nice association to it and it has clear product language. Also I will design a simple guide about how many pieces of chocolate-coffee should be used for different purpose. And the tool will be fun for people to play with, like hopscotch: using the manpower from people's jumping when they play the game.
RECIP AND MATERIAL TESTING First trying is homemade glue, which is a mixing from flour, sugar and water. As showed in picture 2, if dried in oven, it cracks. If dried by air, it shrinks. So I should let it dry by air but make sure that every surface is dried at the same time to prevent shrinking.
1.Homemade glue works with wood dust 2.Left: dried in oven Right: dried by air
The ashtray is a quick trying idea, since coffee grounds helps stub cigarettes out and clean the smell.
CHOCOLATE-SHAPE MOLD Using wood frame and plaster to make the mold out of chocolate. Melting the chocolate with flamer.
1. Wood frame for plaster 2. Let it dry 3. Melt the chocolate
COFFEE GROUNDS WITH CHOCOLATE-SHAPE The first mold is not successful; plaster took water from the coffee grounds and got broken. Also the shape was not clear. I’m going to try to make a deeper shape mold from wood. I will also try to add some fabric from other food waste and add higher pressure. The cloth I put under coffee grounds gets natural dye, like the texture of treasure map, which can be used for package. The traditional technique showed in picture 3 is an inspiration of how to use rope as the mold. 1.Fabric from other waste 2.Natural dyed paper for packaging 3.Inspiration: traditional technique
KEEPING SHAPE The basket structure holds the coffee grounds mixed with glue quite well, which can be used as a choice to hold the shape.
1. Basket structure 2. The structure holds coffee grounds mixed with glue quite well
PRESSURE & TEMPERATURE Coffee grounds and glue were put into the rice cooker first, get the texture on the surface with interspace, but very easy to crumble. Then I boil them the second time with water hyacinths in it. It works.
1.Coffee grounds, glue and water hyacinth 2.Cooked in the rice cooker 3.Texture on the surface
RICE AS GLUE
1.Mixed with rice
Rice are very sticky after being cooked, so I cooked rice with coffee grounds, but it doesn't work.
EGG WHITE AS GLUE Egg white is full of protein, often used as glue in cooking. I mixed egg white and coffee ground, cut the texture with spoon, the put it into microwave, then it got the texture showed in picture 1. The bigger image shows the texture of the backside.
1.Mixed with egg white 2.cut with spoon 3.After microwave
WATER HYACINTH AS STRING There's porous structure in the water hyacinth. I put wet coffee ground on the cutting surface of water hyacinth to make a sanding paper for shower. It doesn't work.
1.Coffee ground is good for skin 2.Inspired by sanding paper
ROPE MADE FROM COFFEE GOUNDS Mixing coffee grounds and glue, putting them into piping paper. Using aluminum to cover a bowl, getting the shape of it. Then using piping paper to create ropes and wave above the aluminum.
1.Fill the piping paper 2.Create ropes with piping paper
BREAD WITH COFFEE GROUNDS I added some coffee grounds when making bread during the workshop at NOT QUIET as a testing of "Add extra taste & texture to baked goods".
PLASTER HELPS KEEP THE SMELL Mixing coffee grounds/tea with plaster. After it's dry, plaster helpes keep the smell of coffee and tea.
HIGH PRESSURE COFFEE/TEA MDF Mixing coffee grounds/tea with glue, then high pressure (5 ton) pressed into the whole on a wood piece. Afterwards sand the surface and finish with oil or hard wax.
1.High Pressure
STUDY OF TEA BAGS There are different materials in a tea bag: tea, paper, string and metal. The tea in the tea bag has the similar usefulness and texture with coffee grounds, so all the experiment I have done can also be used to the tea. The paper can be easily used for making rope.