At Shreeji Newsagents on Chiltern Street, creative agency Heaps + Stacks held an event to showcase the relationship between coffee and craft during the London Craft Week. They held craft courses such as the jewellery, and coaster workshop, latte art, and espresso martinis are all on the menu. It was a must-be-there event for all coffee lovers!
They showed how coffee grounds may be considered as a useful raw resource rather than a food waste problem. At the hidden gallery space, guests could watch and participate in live demos offered by creative coffee specialists. We got to meet the designers and artisans who are paving the road for good change in the world by using coffee waste as their raw material.
The first session was the Eco Coffee Coasters Workshop by Kay Cater Studio. In this workshop, Kay demonstrated how to create Jesmonite Eco Coffee coasters using raw Jesmonite materials that are solvent-free and have no VOCs. Guests also learned how to measure, mix, and cast Jesmonite into silicone molds using spent coffee grounds that Kay had pre-dried and prepared from coffee shop trash.
The coasters required to cure and dry for around 20-30 minutes after coasting, during which guests could buy snacks, coffee, and chat. The coasters were then demoulded, wet sanded, and polished with various grit sandpapers before being gently sealed with natural wax.
The next workshop was the Nespresso Pod Jewellery Workshop by the Coffee Pod Artists. Since the introduction of the Nespresso capsule machines in 1986, Coffee aficionados throughout the world embraced them as a new means of obtaining their daily caffeine fix.
The machine uses little plastic or aluminum pods covered with filter paper and holding coffee grinds to fill a cup quickly with drinkable coffee. It was in this session too that everyone got to try their hand at crafting, turning Nespresso pods into something to be worn and adored! Some even chose to tum the pods into rings or earrings which are hard enough enough to go on and stand the tests of time.
Later, we got the chance to buy snacks and coffee prepared by their talented barista. They also served various delicious coffee drinks that the guests definitely enjoyed which really heightened the liveliness of the place. They had espresso martinis, whisky affogato and amaro mio.
Aside from the workshops, there were also mini exhibitions about how coffee grounds may be considered as a useful raw resource rather than a food waste problem. An example was the Coffee Watch by Kaffeeform in collaboration with Lilienthal Berlin, a watch whose case is made from recycled coffee ground and other renewable resources.
Overall, I was thoroughly impressed by the lengths Heaps + Stacks, in partnership with other firms, had gone through to create such a memorable experience.
