The Beehive Design Collective

The Beehive Design Collective, a volunteer artist group out of Machias, Maine, made a stop at Yestermorrow to share their latest masterpiece: "The True Cost of Coal." The collective transforms hushed global issues into large-scale hand-drawn illustrations that depict the stories and the effects of major social and environmental catastrophes.

The group can spend between 6 months to several years collecting the stories, observing the issues, researching, and interpreting the information into black and white illustrations. They then spend the following months traveling the US to tell the stories embedded into their pieces.

The story they shared with us is the story of mountain top removal in Appalachia. "As a resource-extraction colony within the US, Appalachia is sacrificed and poisoned in the name of cheap electricity for consumers and consolidation of power and wealth for corporations and government." They are seeing their health decline, their landscape transformed, their money escaping, their children leaving, and their history being destroyed.
The monster machine, above, is a 22-story dragline used to excavate thin layers of coal. After mountain clear-cuts occur on mountain tops, some dynamite blows the top off, these behemoth's come in an dig out the layer of coal (imagine the coal layers being the middle layer of icing in a cake.)
Over consumption and perceived needs are depicted in this section called the Temple of Conspicuous Consumption. Consuming "green" products isn't making the situation better...we can't consume our way into a better environment. In the bottom left of the image above, a bulldozer is pushing a small building over a cliff. This is representing an elementary school in the valley that is at the base of a coal slurry damn (used to clean off the coal prior to burning.) If the damn breaks, it was warned to the school that everyone had 3 minutes to evacuate the area, or they wouldn't make it out of the valley (apparently, they always have their buses on hand, just in case.)

The frogs above depict the inescapable cycle of a coal miner: working long days in the mine and poor working conditions lead to increasing physical health issues, the workers and families then spend more money on health care, local gardens and food systems are being polluted and destroyed, the families are then becoming increasing dependent on pay and losing their own independence.
The illustrators for the Beehive spend massive amounts of time researching local native plant and animal species (current and extinct) to better portray the local environment and history. Every plant and animal is drawn so accurately that identification of species is able.
Community organization has begun at the grassroots level and stories are being shared. The above scene is the story telling and knowledge sharing regarding the issue of mountain top removal in communities (diverse members.)
When the Beehive asked local residents what would be an indication that reclamation of land was happening by citizens, they envisioned that their children would return back home and have a reason to stay. The above section is a representation of the Longest Walk, a cross-continental journey of homecoming.

Milkweed

While I am sure I have dissected a milkweed plant at some point in my youth, I never really been as fascinated with it till now. Andrea and I stopped and examined the complexity of the milkweed and were amazed at the structures, textures, and possibilities for biomimicry (we were definitely in the design mode at this point).The milkweed has a soft case shaped similar to an elongated teardrop. Soft spikes aligned vertically run the whole length of the pod. When cracked open, the seeds are closely stacked on eachother to form a tube in the center of the pod.
The outer case has this complicated protective structure which reminded me of the texture of bone. Sticky milky substance was released when touched.When cracked open, the silky hairs are revealed. Each seed has a tail of the threads that allow the seed to float around with the wind.

Small Scale Update

After several full days and late nights in the shop, small scale has come to completion. The desk is complete!


Late night in the studio= miter gauge jig lion. Nice work Andrea.
Below is my desk completed. The drawer pull uses the same triangular shape as the cord exit through the surface of the desk.

Small Scale Design/Build

Furniture design from design conception to full execution in seven days, this is Small Scale Design/Build. Today we made it to the "slash" part of the class where design meets build. Furniture pieces being constructed in class include bookshelves, a chair, a bureau, a chest, a bench and my desk.


I am design/building a desk that will work as my computer table and surface for crafting. The double layer desk will allow me to store my computer and stack a few books on either side. I will be adding a drawer for tools, a cord exit, and possibly book/pen slots through the top surface. Below is my first model of the desk.
Below are most of the pieces cut out which all were designed to fit on one 5x5 sheet of Baltic Birch plywood (had I not gotten greedy and made my legs a little wider, they would have actually fit.)
Tomorrow I will be starting to assemble the desk and hopefully have it standing by Saturday.

Feel of Handwork

The furniture coming out of the doors at ShackletonThomas are made not produced. Their focus on hand-work, the process, and the material, separate their pieces from the mass produced monotony. We had the opportunity to talk with Charles Shackleton and Miranda Thomas and see their studios.Below is furniture maker, Chip's, work space. The organization and layout of the hand tools was beautiful...not to mention the side table he was working on.
All work done is hand crafted. There is minimal use of machinery to create the pieces or decorate: "We at ShackletonThomas believe a human being making something brings it to life in a way that a machine cannot. We express this belief in the way that we design and make our furniture and pottery"

They use the analogy of a Van Gogh painting to further illustrate their beliefs. An original painting by Van Gogh can be worth millions; a print of the same painting can be sold for a few dollars. The print never has the same feel and meaning as the true original.


As a celebration of the work and time working at ShackletonThomas, each furniture maker creates a spoon to hang on the wall when they reach their 4 year mark. While a small gesture, these spoons have become a right of passage.

Above: Miranda Thomas decorates one of their mugs, effortlessly. The studio here is open to the public and all are welcome. Miranda describes her experience with one customer who was astonished that pottery was hand painted and that it was possible to do by hand! This is a result of the separation between user and product production that we have been moving towards; somewhere we have lost the ability to understand how things are made.