My student Sierra hooked me up with a honey producer. Her grandpa keeps bees and is good friends with a man who holds the equipment to extract honey from the hives.
The experience was sensory overload for me. There was so much to take in. A few loose bees few about. The room was warm, filled with the sounds of the wax shaver (which trims the wax off the closed cells) and the honey extractor. Also, the room was bursting with the sweet smell of bees wax.
Bees wax is just intoxicating for me. Whenever I smell it I am reminded of this cryptic art show I went to. In the far back room of the gallery was this large installation of a large curving wall made from 12 x 12 tiles of bees wax. The scent of the wax filled up the entire gallery. Also, when I smell bees wax I think of the solid perfume I made, and pysanky egg decorating.
There are so many interesting facts concerning bees and honey and I could begin to list them, but the thing that I came away with is how romantic the process is . . . really. Oh sure these men could spouts off facts, but in doing so you could see how smitten they are with these fascinating insects.
Flowers, pollen, dances, sweet, golden, black bees, nectar, extracting, centrifugal force, wax lighter than honey, vats, raw, queen bee, workers, drones, hive, scavengers, casings, cocoons, . . . even the vocabulary is exciting.
It was one of the most thrilling experiences I've ever had.
OH! And they gave me this huge container of honey fresh from the vat, just out of the hive . . . All these creative ways to thank them are going through my mind.
1 comment:
WOW!! HOW cool!
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