Hexagon Wrap Up

Supercrawl is long gone now - and what a whirlwind of activity! We successfully installed our piece, Modular Beauty, and we were so thrilled with the results! We can't possibly say that without a big huge THANK YOU to all those who contributed hexagons to the project, and all the small businesses and institutions that acted as drop-off locations for us and the community.  The Bees are eternally grateful, and we really do think that it was that much more special being a combined, concentrated craft effort.

And silly us, we didn't take one really good, high quality shot of the thing. If you have any to send our way for our records, we'd really love you for it!

We were a little ambitious in our plans - hoping to cover at least six or seven buildings initally. Once we got to installing,  we ended up sticking to one block for more visual impact - in between Vine Street and Cannon on James Street North. Dave from Mixed Media was so pleased with the piece that he asked if he could keep the hexagons up on his building indefinitely! So if you missed Supercrawl, head down to the corner of James and Cannon and check out the remnants of our piece there. They really brighten up the street-scape!

So, what's on the Beehive's plate now that this giant project is done? We're hoping to leisurely envelope ourselves in the slow craft movement, and take it a little bit easy for a while. We formed as a group almost two years ago because of a mutual love for crafting, but we've hardly had any time at all to simply craft together because of all of our endeavours that we taken on since we started. Don't get us wrong, we love the craft fairs, and the workshops and public art installations that we've been a part of, but we're hoping to just hang out as Bees and eat cheese and stitch and knit and maybe have a glass wine while we're at it. We're so grateful for each other, and for the support from the craft community for our work, and you can bet that our hands won't ever be idle for too long. Thanks Hamilton!

(Last two photos via Best of Hamilton)

Hexagon Due Date!

We're having flashbacks to last year around this time when it was a mad dash to knit knit knit as many scarves as we could for Knit Night on the Brain. Luckily, paper piecing is a much more enjoyable craft to work on in the summer compared to knitting with all that heavy wool.

But it IS getting down to crunch time. And so we're asking all of our lovely friends, family and Beehive enthusiasts who are helping out with our Modular Beauty project to finish up and hand in their completed hexagons so that we can start assembling for installation. We've been trying to gauge where we are at, and we think that with all of your help, we've done a pretty darn good job and that we're going to be able to make a real statement with our fibre intervention on the street at Supercrawl.

We've extended the deadline for drop off to Friday August 31st 2012. If you're helping us out (and we love you so much for it) we're hoping you'll be able to drop off your completed pieces by then.

If you need a reminder as to where you can drop off the hexagons, any of the following locations listed below will happily take them off of your hands:

Hamilton

White Elephant – 133 James St. North
Needlework – 174 James St. North
The Ship – 23 Augusta St.
The Hamilton Public Library:
Central Branch – 55 York Blvd.
Terryberry Branch – 100 Mohawk Rd. W.
Sherwood Branch - 467 Upper Ottawa St.
Citizen Kid – 188 Locke St. S.
Cake and Loaf – 321 Dundurn St. S.
The Baltimore House – 43 King William St.
Detour Coffee – 41B King St. W, Dundas
Downtown Bike Hounds - 19 John Street North
The Cannon - 179 Ottawa St N

Toronto

Kid Icarus – 75 Nassau St.

Russet & Empire – 390 Keele St.

The Arthur - 550 College St.  

The Workroom - 1340 Queen St. W

And we promise, we've been up to other fun and exciting non-hexagon related things that we'll fill you in on shortly. Magazine write-ups! Crafting with Etsy! Adventures in fermenting! All these things and more. But right now, it's stitch stitch stitch.

Thanks, friends!!!

Hexagon Craze!

By now you've likely caught wind of our big plans for a Beehive installation at this year's Supercrawl! Our piece is called Modular Beauty and will be made up of hand-sewn, English paper pieced hexagons that will creep and grow out of unexpected places along James Street, mimicking hives in the wild.



You'll remember that last year the Beehive installed a large-scale art project onto the facade of The Brain, which was the collaborative effort of many, many helping hands. This year we’re back at it with another idea, and community contributions to this installation are not only in the spirit of the project - which celebrates the culmination of multiple efforts to make something beautiful - they are also totally essential to making this whole thing a success!




After we explained the project a few weeks ago, and let you know that we were looking for lots and lots of hands to contribute, the project picked up steam and we have a lot of interest - which is so great! We hope you’ll consider joining in on our Hive Drive campaign to generate a serious crop of hexagon clusters, allowing us to expand this fibre intervention as much as possible over the buildings of James Street North.


How can you do this, you ask? Well:

In partnership with Etsy Canada we are hosting a Hive Drive hexagon-making party on Wednesday July 4 from 6:00-9:00 (that's next week!). We are so excited to invite you to join us at Low Key Studio (an amazing loft space/artist-run photography studio & art showcase gallery located at 48 Ferguson Ave. S. in Hamilton) for a night of relaxed hexagon making. Zero experience necessary – it is a very simple craft and we’d love to show you the ropes. And trust us, once you start making these little cuties, you won’t be able to stop! We’ll provide the fabric, templates and supplies (though of course feel free to bring your own) as well as refreshments and treats. It’s gonna be a super fun night so bring friends or come on your own and meet other crafty locals! RSVP here!



Can’t make the July 4th Hive Drive or planning on making hexagons at home? We have several super-duper hive drive donation locations throughout Hamilton supporting the cause. At these locations, starting this weekend (June 30th), you can pick up hexagon templates and fabric scraps, and drop off sewn hive sections when completed. If you have some fabric you’d be willing to donate towards hexagon making, we’ll gladly accept it through these locations. Anything you can contribute is MUCH appreciated!

Here are our confirmed donation stations:

Hamilton

White Elephant – 133 James St. North
Needlework – 174 James St. North
The Ship – 23 Augusta St.
The Hamilton Public Library:
Central Branch – 55 York Blvd.
Terryberry Branch – 100 Mohawk Rd. W.
Sherwood Branch - 467 Upper Ottawa St.
Citizen Kid – 188 Locke St. S.
Cake and Loaf – 321 Dundurn St. S.
The Baltimore House – 43 King William St.
Detour Coffee – 41B King St. W, Dundas
Downtown Bike Hounds - 19 John Street North
The Cannon - 179 Ottawa St N


Toronto

Kid Icarus – 75 Nassau St.
Russet & Empire – 390 Keele St.
The Arthur - 550 College St.
The Workroom - 1340 Queen St. W



If you're not in our city and would still like to contribute, please do! You can pop those hexagons in the mail and address them to Needlework at 174 James Street North Hamilton, ON L8R 2L1. We must receive them by August 17th 2012 to make sure that we have enough time to work them into the larger piece.

Lastly, if you plan to make a bunch of hexagons at home, and you're looking for some tips, we've put together a short and simple set of instructions for you. Here we go!

Modular Beauty

Calling all stitchers, lovers of quilts, the curiously crafty, and sewing enthusiasts! We bees need your help...


Remember this photo of Jenna? Back in February we hinted that we were working on our Supercrawl proposal. Well, the time has come to share our plan with y'all! But first, let's take a brief trip down memory lane.

As you may remember, last year we participated in Supercrawl by creating a large, knitted installation entitled 'Knit Night on the Brain.' With your help, we knit 80 brick scarves and stitched them together to make up the facade of one of our favourite haunts, the Brain. Lion Brand Yarn generously donated the materials, and YOU, the amazingly crafty folk of Hamilton, generously donated your time and talent to help us create this gigantic knitted piece. The end result was quite impressive! Once all was said and done, we disassembled the scarves and donated every single one of them to Mission Services, just in time for the cool weather.




This year for Supercrawl, we're planning yet another large scale textile installation: Modular Beauty.


Modular Beauty will be made up from hand sewn, english paper pieced hexagons (hexagons = honeycombs = beehives) that will creep and grow out of unexpected places along James Street, mimicking hives in the wild.



Beehives are incredibly symbolic of our fair city - just look up at our original coat of arms the next time you're passing by the armouries on James Street. Hamilton has always been an ambitious and industrious city, with residents are who are familiar with working with their hands. We feel a connection to this aspect in particular of its manufacturing past, and wish to pay reverence by draping the street in our softer, but just as driven, methods. We're so proud of this city we call home, and Modular Beauty will resonate a sense of our past, workers heritage, industry and community. We're determined to revitalize in the best way we know how - a fibre intervention.



So, we're asking for your support once again. Many hands make light work, right? Just like Knit Night on the Brain, involving Hamilton's craft community is a very important aspect of Modular Beauty.

On Wednesday May 30th, the Beehive will be hosting an informal English Paper Piecing workshop at Needlework from 6-9pm, during their monthly craft night. No prior sewing experience is necessary and it's very simple - all we ask is for is your willingness to learn, share, and maybe sew up a hexagon or two! Donations to Modular Beauty in the form of scrap cotton fabric is greatly appreciated, however we do have scraps fabrics between us Bees that we're more than willing to share if needed. We'll also provide the templates, so all you have to bring is a needle and thread!

If you can't make next Wednesday but you're still interested in contributing, never fear! We plan on hosting a monthly quilting bee/hive-drive (har har, bee puns) to teach the necessary skills, collect hexagons, and to simply enjoy each others company. Stay tuned for more dates!

So, there it is! Hope you're as excited as we are about Supercrawl. It's gonna be a good one.