Studio Resets' Honeycomb Vase is selected as a finalist in the 2023 RT Nelson Sculpture Awards
As a beekeeper I have sustainably harvested the wax to create encaustic medium for many years now. Beeswax is an amazing medium to work with. Last year I began experiments in the hive to see how I could push the boundaries of my art making process.
I started with a hanger and then handmade wire sculpture shapes to see how the bees would build around such structures. I ws amazed by the effect. Blown away actually.
"The Honeycomb vase" is an incredibly unique and important piece. Historical and it's made of something so precious from nature. The wax is formed from about 300 organic substances including hydrocarbons, acids, alcohols and unique resin from the local trees and is biologically and environmentally unique to my home in Te Horo. To produce the wax, the bees transform the honey using about ten grams of it to produce a single gram of wax.
Bees use it to form the hexagon shaped walls and packing it to the brim full of honey stores. The 6 sided shape in the form of a cluster is one of the strongest in the engineering world and compared to other shapes such as a triangle or a square, a “hexagon inscribed in a circular figure encloses the greatest amount of space.” Space efficiency isn’t the only benefit of building with hexagons. Stacked together, hexagons fill spans in an offset arrangement with six short walls around each “tube,” giving structures a high compression strength. Beehives also dissipate heat well, preventing the waxy structure from melting on hot days.
Scientists and engineers have incorporated hexagonal designs into seemingly endless applications, including light-weight building materials, flexible panels for bridge construction, sound absorption, light diffusion, catalyst design, magnetic shielding, tissue engineering, and even building better surfboards.
“He must be a dull man who can examine the exquisite structure of a comb, so beautifully adapted to its end, without enthusiastic admiration,” wrote Charles Darwin. As we examine these structures more than a century and a half later, we’re still finding new things to admire.
I hope builders, architects, and forward thinkers can look to this honeycomb vase sculpture and its intricacies for inspiration and wonder.
Here is a great write up about me as one of the finalists on the NZ Artshow' blog. https://www.artshow.co.nz/finalists-for-2023-sculpture-awards-announced/