Mat Research

Since I have been following the threads of coffee through my research - coffee culture, consumption, benefits and drawbacks of the substance - I thought it would be appropriate to use coffee as a material.

Everything can be traced back to nature or the raw materials used.
Coffee has a fairly simple lineage - coffee comes from beans, which come from a plant.
The plant grows between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They like tropical, humid locations.
Brazil produces the most coffee worldwide, at 5,714,381,00 lbs.

However, anybody can grow a coffee plant at home. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have enough time to grow my own coffee plant from scratch for the project.

Everything Comes from Nature

Coffee is widely known as a caffeinated beverage.
It's made from roasted and ground bean-like seeds. It can be served either hot or cold.
Coffee has been made convenient - pre-ground coffee, coffee machines, keurig, instant coffee - but some people still take the time and care to grind their own beans and brew their coffee at home. (I do not)
The beans are a material used to make the coffee but can that coffee also be a material to make something new?

Coffee as an Artistic Material

Painting with brewed coffee is nothing new. There are dozen 'How To' and 'Art Challenge' videos that show how a person can use coffee as an artistic material.
Obviously, painting with coffee gives the artist a limited palette of browns. The coffee could be diluted with water or creamer to create different tones.
Coffee can be served hot or cold - would the temperature make a difference of it's painting properties as well? Does the type of coffee used also create a different result? Does instant coffee differ from freshly ground beans in terms of colour?

I would also like to incorporate other elements relating to coffee. Possibly by trying collage these items onto coffee paintings or create a paint with them.
- sugar packets, creamers, stir sticks, coffee cups -
Another material I'm thinking about is the paper. Watercolour paper seems like the obvious choice, but it might be worth experimenting with napkins, menus, newspapers.

I've never actually painted with coffee so I thought I would do a quick test before committing to the material.
I used instant coffee in both tests. I also used sharpie.
Test 1 - I used watercolour paper since this is pretty much watercolour painting.
Test 2 - I don't know why I thought painting a napkin would work well, but I did it so I included it.

Painting with coffee also smells nice. :)