⚜️ UNDERSTORY: A honeycomb design had been on my list from my very first forays into pyrography. In fact, I originally imagined doing an entire tabletop of comb, with bees scattered across it. I loved the idea of that beautiful, repeating geometry spreading over a large surface.
Before committing to something quite so ambitious, however, I decided to try a smaller version. I placed a bee in the middle of a piece of honeycomb and surrounded it with wildflowers, which gave me another opportunity to deconstruct familiar botanical forms into something a little more graphic and playful.
I enjoyed the contrast between the precise geometry of the comb and the freer shapes of the flowers. It felt like a way to bring together two things I’m drawn to in nature: the patterns that seem almost impossibly orderly and the wonderful variety of forms growing all around them.
⚜️⚜️ OVERSTORY: As much as I love the minutiae of burning, I discovered that getting all those hexagons to line up without looking like a sloppy, out-of-sync mess required an astonishing amount of time and brain-energy. Every little cell had to relate properly to the ones around it, and there were an awful lot of little cells!
By the time I finished this smaller piece, I was very glad I hadn’t started with the tabletop. I suspect an entire table’s worth of honeycomb might have put me off this art-craft form before it even had a chance to make its lasting impression.
Perhaps one day I’ll revisit the idea. But if I do, I think I’ll be approaching those hexagons with a great deal more respect—and possibly a very large ruler.
