If you’ve got a batch of coffee beans that have been overlooked in the cupboard and are past their best, you can still make the most of them. Although they won’t be top quality for drinking, you can make them into jewellery.
You’ll need a quantity of coffee beans, some jewellers elasticated cord, a darning needle, some Plasticine and some clear nail varnish or lacquer spray.
Place the first bean on small ball of Plasticine to hold it in place, on a chopping board. Carefully push the needle through the bean. This takes a bit of practice as the bean is quite brittle, so make sure you have plenty of spare beans handy. Pierce the next bean in the same way, and continue until you have enough for your necklace or bracelet.
Cover the chopping board with a layer of aluminium foil, and paint each bean with clear nail varnish or spray them with lacquer spray. Leave them to dry completely before turning them over and coating the back in the same way. Painting the beans in this way will give them am attractive, glossy finish as well as sealing in the coffee smell and making the beans waterproof rather than porous. Dip the end of the elastic cord in the nail varnish as well, and leave it to dry. This will help when stringing the beans.
String the beans together as you wish, either on their own or interspersed with other beads such as glass, metal or ceramic. Tie the ends of the string together as tightly as you can, trim off the loose ends and pull a bead over them to hide the knot.
At the Wholesale Coffee Company, we supply a wide range of coffee beans suitable for every purpose, from green beans to espresso beans. To find out more, please visit our coffee beans page.