These vessels/pods/baskets are finally coming to fruition after two years. The idea began to germinate when I was living in a tiny studio apartment and began working with coffee filters from the coffee shop across the street. I dried them in my stove; my apartment perpetually smelled of coffee and cigarettes. I began experimenting with staples, rust, gut, and handmade paper that had been dyed with indigo. I was excited.

All this and much else got put on hold for two years, originally put on hold to move in with my then-boyfriend, then put on hold while dealing with the aftermath of a relationship that should never have been. I moved, found a new love. Two months ago, I got a studio, and the ideas I had been so excited about before suddenly grabbed hold of me again.

The materials are simple; the construction, down and dirty. Staples. Industrial used offee filters, stiffened with rabbit skin glue. Staples. A stapler. Rusting agent, both bought and created. The bowl above was my first attempt, darkened with walnut ink and coated with wax. A basket next, spun out of coffee filters and sewn together with linen paper cord.

The constructions are getting larger; they are becoming larger vessels. I think of them as cairns. I have two larger ones in progress; this is the first one.

They are deceptive; the staples, the patina give them a visible heft, but they are feather light. Making them is physical, especially the larger ones I am working on; the stretch of the arm to staple grows tiring. The amounts of coffee filters harvested and stiffened are overwhelming at times. But they are cairns, markers of a path in some private, as yet unrealised way.