Martha Stewart really knows how to make some beautiful crafts with a coffee filter. I recently saw a dying technique that she uses with none other than regular old food coloring.

I also saw an amazing video tutorial for fabric chandeliers from the folks at 100 Layer Cake and decided that I would try to combine Martha’s dyed coffee filters with their chandelier idea.

Behold the beginnings of this (moderately) daunting task.

Here are a few tips for the beginning of the process:

Tip #1: See that set of filters on the top right hand corner of the photo? Yeah, that was the first batch I dyed, and there were only 3-4 filters in the stack. NOT CUTE. Use at least 5-7 or it will be a sad, soggy mess.

Tip #2: Give yourself a solid 10-15 minutes to dye, and at least 12 hours to dry.

Tip #3: You have to be quick or again, you’ll have an unfortunate glob of paper. Coffee filters pick up pigment (and moisture) lightning fast. You want them to hold a bit of a shape while they’re drying, so they won’t stick to each other and will be easy to cut later on.

Tip #4: For darker pigment, use 15-20 drops of food coloring. I was going for a gradient look, so I just added more dye to the bowl as I went along.

Tonight, I will be meticulously cutting petals and stringing them up! I’ll post a (hopefully) finished product tomorrow!

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