One of the collaborations i made with artists from the cross-pollination project has come to fruition, and its amazing!! The networking project aims to bring Art and Science together, producing creative art projects that explore and promote the crisis facing pollinators and to influence policy decision making.This particular artwork is a collaboration between the artist Dr Tyra Oseng-Rees and supporting artist Carly Wilshere-Butler from Swansea College of Art at UWTSD, myself , and Sinead Lynch from Bumblebees Conservation Trust.
Six different types of bumblebees has been made out of recycled bottle glass and is currently exhibited at the National Botanic Garden, Wales until the end of August 2017 before the exhibition will be moved to Dr Beynon’s Bug Farm in Pembrokeshire. Different bumblebees have been made using a combination of fused recycled glass and enamelled mild steel and wiring. The recycled glass has been collected form waste bottles, subsequently cleaned and crushed into a fine small grained cullet before moulded around a hand-crafted model of a bumblebee and fired in a kiln.
The Bumblebees made are:
White- tailed bumblebee, male Bombus lucorum
Common carder bee, female Bombus pascuorum
Red-tailed bumblebee, maleBombus lapidarius
Tree bumblebee, female Bombus hypnorum
Red-tailed cuckoo bumblebee, female Bombus rupestris
Gypsy cuckoo bumblebee, femaleBombus bohemicus
Learn more about the recycled glass bees and the project here: https://www.osengreesreflection.com/projects/#/recycled-glass-bumblebees/