Inspired by the alarming mass disappearance of honeybees, The Abandoned Comb Amulet is a Solomonic dilemma: violently shatter and consume the object to remove its inner worth or nurture the form and allow it to reveal the treasure within naturally.
MATERIALS
The Abandoned Comb Amulet is a six hexagon 18k gold honeycomb pendant on a gold chain encapsulated in a three-inch tall hexagonal sugar-glass pyramid filled with New York rooftop honey. It is presented and preserved in an airtight glass bell-jar and rubber base—edition of 30.
PROCESS
It begins with a visit to a local rooftop beehive in Brooklyn, New York. There, I gathered an abandoned wax honeycomb that had suffered from Colony Collapse. I coated the wax with natural shellacs in preparation for traditional “lost wax” casting. The wax honeycomb is completely burned away during casting and replaced with gold. The result is a perfect 18k gold replica of the found honeycomb.
I then reduced the casting into arrangements of six hexagons. Each cluster is assembled onto a gold chain with a handcrafted clasp, disinfected, and sealed by hand in a honey-filled cast sugar pyramid.
A special thank you to The Brooklyn Bee, PapaBubble Caramels Artesans, Susanne Goetz, and Austin Priebe. Still photography by Gisel Florez, black and white photo by Nadav Benjamin.