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MATERIALS:
USED COFFEE, WASTE BRICK, GYPSUM CEMENT

Application:
2020 Milky's Town Square installation, Toronto, Ca
2021 Packaging for Cassette on Colony Collapse Editions
2021 tabels for La Picina, Toronto, CA

Description 

As Canadians, we are one of the largest coffee drinking nations in the world, which contributes to the estimated 500,000 tons of waste coffee grounds created globally each year. Of the 71% of our population drinking coffee daily, the average have around 2-3 cups per day. During the process of brewing coffee, only 2% of the grounds are dissolved into your cup leaving the other 98% to become waste.

Working with my partner Nicole Charles, we wanted to create a material that could use that coffee waste and formed in our created molds. We wanted a material that would have a solid concrete like feel, but did not involve high end forming machines. With this material, our goal was to created indoor art objects and hopefully in time expand to surfaces that did not have high water contact.

A series of tests were done to try and find the right ratio between the coffee, construction waste and gypsum cement to get the highest percentage of coffee possible while still holding the integrity of the material. With the high amount of natural oils still in the grounds, the curing of the material seemed to be effected, prompting multi stage brewing to try and extract some of the oils.

As the material dries and water evaporates, natural staining occurs on the unfinished surface. When sanded down, a terrazzo like finish appears showing the coffee and whatever other waste materials have been added. If left raw, it has a soft stone like feel, but is not waterproof. This finish can be coated with different methods depending on the desired look, allowing it to be water resistant and easily cleaned. 

Original tests and samples.

Un-sanded and sanded Grind material.

Milky's Coffee

Milky’s Town Square was conceived as a solution to way-finding and social distancing during the pandemic, while finding a unique way to utilize some of the waste grounds from the shop.

The top sculptures were made up of 30% used coffee from the shop, 10% local construction debris, and gypsum cement. The sculpture’s shapes, tones and feeling compliment the geometric landscape of the shop and showed the patrons a possible alternative use for their everyday waste. After the installation is complete, the pieces are able to be re ground down and used as filler in other projects.

Video about the Milky's Town Square.

Photos of the installation.

Extempore

This album "Reflection" was the first cassette release on my editions label Colony Collapse and my first foray back into music after a decade away. It came housed in a sculpture made of the Grind composite along with my hair that was grown and cut during this period of time, and one of 10 different hand printed silver gelatine photos by Cristian Ordóñez.

All aspects of this release were created locally in Toronto from locally coffee roasters and the acquisition of other materials used to create the sculpture, to manufacturing of the cassettes by Duplication.

In memory of Aneeta, Nano, and Peter

“Extempore has been a meditative improvisational process allowing me to get back to exploring music and tuning out during a time of loss."

All covers and materials used.

Packaged and shipped in recycled paper padded, natural excelsior padding, and paper sitckers.

Broken case showing hairs inside &  Back of case holding the cassette.

La Piscina

It's one thing to be able to create sculptures and beautiful art objects from the material, but making functional surfaces with it has always been one of the main goals of the material exploration process. For this project, we created a surface at which to dink your coffee, that is made from waste generated from that coffee.

A set of tables created for La Piscina's coffee shop with artist Shane Winrow. The tables feature an inlay of the coffee mixture creating a surface that is suitable for drinking, dining, and working purposes.  The tables inlaid coffee and construction waste mixture design mimics the almost century old tin ceiling panels that cover the shop.

Photos of the coffee tables in the shop.

Close up of table.

Detail of the ceiling tiles that inspired the pattern on the tables.