Coffee Artisan Carries Higher Goals

Coffee beans have many uses, but Myrna Castaneda puts them to a more atypical purposes. She makes art using the more creative parts of the coffee plant, and not just for the pleasure of the viewing eye, but to raise awareness.

Being born in a coffee farmer’s home in El Salvador, Castaneda said the coffee was their gold mine.

“I am trying to show the world how important the coffee beans are by making something special,” she said. “I wish to open a market for more coffee business to help maintain the farmers and a lot of people's jobs.”

As an artisan, she creates unique pieces of coffee-based art such as paintings, jewelry and glassware. Her pieces employ the coffee bean in unusual but functional ways. She and her team painstakingly drill holes into each coffee bean to create their works of jewelry art, a technique she learned from her mother.

“My mother started to make a necklace with a friend of hers, and I found it interesting. We have to open each coffee bean with a drill and it takes a lot of work to do it. My mother stopped doing it because she didn't have time, so I decided to take her idea and work it out,” she explained.

Castaneda didn’t stop with necklaces. She began to make paintings, jewelry boxes, coffee scent boxes, coffee decorative soaps and coffee candles.

hosted Castaneda and her crew as part of its . Castaneda said she was grateful for the opportunity to showcase her art and knows she has a unique niche. She even uses the coffee plant's wood as frames for her paintings.

Copper Coin uses Counter Culture, organic, fair trade or direct trade coffees. Castaneda said she supports this brand and wants others to celebrate when coffee farmers are treated with respect.

“I wish that people were more interested in the beauty of the coffee farmers, the beauty of the coffee bean and the beauty of natural materials which make the art more special.”