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The Abandoned Comb

“A strong case for art as commentary… making pieces that are narrative, intelligent and sincere.”

— Daylynn Richards, Brass Tea

Inspired by the alarming mass disappearance of honeybees, The Abandoned Comb Amulet presents a Solomonic dilemma: violently shatter and consume the object to extract its inner value, or nurture its form and allow it to reveal the treasure within naturally.

MATERIALS

The Abandoned Comb Amulet is an 18-karat gold honeycomb pendant composed of six hexagons and suspended from a gold chain. It is encapsulated within a three-inch-tall, hexagonal sugar-glass pyramid filled with New York rooftop honey. The piece is presented and preserved beneath an airtight glass bell jar with a rubber base. Edition of 30.

PROCESS

The process begins with a visit to a rooftop beehive in Brooklyn, New York. There, I gathered an abandoned wax honeycomb from a colony affected by colony collapse. I coated the wax with natural shellac in preparation for traditional lost-wax casting. During casting, the wax honeycomb is completely burned away and replaced with gold. The result is a precise 18-karat gold replica of the found honeycomb.

I then divided the casting into arrangements of six hexagons. Each cluster is attached to a gold chain with a handcrafted clasp, disinfected, and sealed by hand within a honey-filled cast-sugar pyramid.

COLLABORATORS

Special thanks to The Brooklyn Bee, PapaBubble Caramels Artesans, Susanne Goetz, and Austin Priebe. Still photography by Gisel Florez.