In the spirit of “make some art everyday, if only for ten minutes,” today I took a short break from gardening to do a little silk screening — on the front of my newest beehive.
This hive has been with me for a few weeks now and still didn’t have a name. I’ve called them “the nuc” (short for nucleus, which is a small colony with a laying queen) or “Pipsqueak,” which seemed rather insulting given their robustness.
A normal artist would have worn a veil; a normal beekeeper would have painted designs on the hives before filling them with bees!
But the day was bright and sunny, and my new bees are fairly gentle. Actually, they were more concerned about doing their jobs than pestering some artist trying to keep a flimsy thermofax screen taut in the afternoon breeze.
I hope that the bees from Ginkgo enjoy their newly decorated home!
MJRussell Studios 
We’ll need a closeup of the finished design, you intrepid thing. 🙂
Great post–I want to see what you created!
Ladies, I tried to oblige but the bees weren’t as friendly as it got later in the day! Basically you can see one of the ginkgo leaves on the lower left of the hive in the picture here, but when I do more on the new upper sections (in my garage!) I’ll take some close ups then.
Oh geez – let’s try that again! MJ – I love your purple bee boxes! I’ve never tried thermofax printing before and you’ve inspired me to try it, once summer arrives on the Olympic Peninsula (after July 4th typically)
Will you share your finished ginkgo prints with us? I’m excited to see how you’ll add them to your fiber art. Cheers from Port Townsend!
: ) Frances
Frances, Glad to inspire another surface designer — I’d only suggest that you try it on a flat horizontal surface, without stinging insects around. This is actually a screen that I’ve used in many pieces of artwork before — fortunately, since that exterior latex is about impossible to get out of the screen even though I put it right into water when I was done.
I’ll post pics soon, promise!