If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere. ~Vincent Van Gogh ~

Recycle, Reuse, Renew ...

This dress inspired by my love of art, cooking, gardening, sewing and all things natural is made entirely of used coffee filters. 

 Working intuitively this project that began in December 2009 was completed in June 2010.  

This dress became a comforting place to for me to play while working on other designs.  It grew into an obsession sewing each coffee filter element to the dress.

In between working with fiber reactive dyes to create colorful work I like to clean my pallet by working with handmade paper in monochromatic natural shades.  It is important to me to be very involved with my materials. 

Everyday I emptied the coffee grounds into my compost pile, rinsed each coffee filter of excess grinds then carefully hung them up to dry.  This dress object is actually made of several hundred coffee filters.  So many coffee filters are sewn into this dress that a portion were lovingly collect by a variety of people including; Kara, Tim, Jomarie and Jake. 
There is a beauty in itself for people answering my call for help to contribute their trash for my Trash to Treasure art project.

 

Image here showing  close up of the dress top.

Each  individual coffee filter is folded then stitched with ecru color floss onto a cotton muslin shift dress.  

Each coffee filter has a unique stain that remains even after it has been washed.  

here is an even closer detail of the luscious layers.

When I completed the sewing portion of the dress I poured hot bees wax over the layers. The wax gives a more translucent quality to paper making it look more like skin than paper.  I also love the sculptural quality of the paper impregnated with the bees wax.

The layers remind me of phyllo dough I use to make the honey sweet, almond pastry baklava. 

 "The Greek seamen and merchants traveling east to Mesopotamia discovered the delights of Baklava. It mesmerized their taste buds. They brought the recipe to Athens. The Greeks' major contribution to the development of this pastry is the creation of a dough technique that made it possible to roll it as thin as a leaf, compared to the rough, bread-like texture of the Assyrian dough. In fact, the name "Phyllo" was coined by Greeks, which means "leaf" in the Greek language."

http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Baklava.htm

Sometimes when I stare at the dress it looks like the rich, creamy, vanilla Buttercream Frosting I've used to make a special Birthday or a Wedding cake.

Maybe the dress looks like Roses or Peonies ???

Comments from women who have seen images of this dress tell me they don't know if they want to eat the dress or wear it ;~)

Having the dress in my home is a constant source of joy and contentment.  Every time I look at it the inner meaning of this intuitive work continues to unfold the wisdom of this dress.

Added note on September 15, 2010 
 title of this dress art object is
Dressing Gown to Filter Out Bad Chi

It am honored to announce Dressing Gown to Filter Out Bad Chi was juried into the
Northeast Regional Juried Contemporary Fiber Exhibition

 Rochester Contemporary Art Center

April 1 – May 9. If you are able to attend one of the First Friday openings on April 1 and May 6, 6 – 10 PM, we hope you will come and join in the celebration.
The jurying for the
took place on Saturday, February 5. The three jurors reviewed approximately 253 entries from 99 artists and selected 28 works from 21 artists. The accepted artists are:



Marilyn Beal, MA

Jodi Colella, MA

Linda Rae Coughlin, NJ

Cady Fontana, MA

Rebecca Fricke, MA

Meredith Grimsley, PA,

Marilyn Henrion, NY

Tracy Jamar, NY

Pat Klein, PA

Elaine Longtemps, NY

Saberah Malik, RI

Jane Ogren, PA

Carol Rafferty, NY

Michele Ratte, VT

Dana Connell and Elena Shandalov, NY

Adrienne Sloane, MA

Priscilla Smith, MA

Laura Tabakman, PA

Betty Vera, NY

Jeanne Williamson, MA

Vivien Zepf, NY



http://sdamari.wordpress
.com/2011/02/12/northeast-regional-juried-contemporary-fiber-exhibition/