Top row, left to right: making of the traditional bee skep (from Wikipedia); a stack of welded brass rings; brass rings with a ground surface to create straw-like texture; shaping the segments of the brass rings with a peening hammer and wooden cradle
Bottom row, left to right: welding the brass rings together with an oxyacetylene torch and brazing rods; two welded rings with clamps to attach a third; measuring the uppermost ring, which has been hammered to reduce its diameter, in order to create a tapered top for the skep; a bee skep from a french fairytale
2014
open studio: brazing steel torus /
Brazing a custom connector to the center of a steel torus. Kelly Heaton, work-in-progress, September 2014
pollinators: death to drones /
As cold weather approaches, the worker bees (female) expel the drones (male) in preparation for winter. Drones can be identified by their larger eyes that meet in the center, as well as their larger black abdomen. The smaller, active bees are the females working to remove the dead. Bees in this role are known as "undertakers" for the hive. Nearly all of the bees in this video are dead or dying drones on the ground in front of their once nurturing hive. In another month or two, the remaining worker bees will form a tight cluster around the queen, vibrating their wings to keep the colony warm (a remarkable 94 - 98 degrees F in the center); and rationing their honey supply until Spring.
This video also shows signs of hygienic behavior - notice the drone larvae which appear affected by Varroa mites. I am doing a mite count to see if I need to treat this hive.
September 2014 / Clarke County, Virginia
open studio: contact dermatitis /
pollinators: 1st look into my new hives /
Beehive 1 of 2, started from a nuc of locally raised bees in Spring of 2014. Video was shot in early June 2014 (through the smaller, rear entrance).
The Queen of hive 2 of 2
Various images of frames in my new hives, both 1 and 2. Beautiful!
open studio: wedding tree /
Pastel drawing and watercolor painting of the old pear tree, beneath which I married Samuel David Burns in 2010. Kelly Heaton, work-in-progress (2013 - 2014)
garden: my perennials /
electricity: breathing motor /
An astable multivibrator controls a Darlington amplifier to drive a small pager motor. The gently rising and falling motor speed simulates breathing or other natural undulations. The addition of other control stages could add complexity, if that's what you want.
Circuit design by Kelly Heaton, 2014. If you try to build this and it does not work, I'm sorry… I am more artist than engineer. I sometimes struggle to reproduce my own circuit diagrams, but I have learned that tinkering with frustrating electronics is a great way to make new art.
This analog circuit is comprised of two parts: an astable multivibrator that creates a low-frequency square wave (left side) to switch on/off a Darlington amplifier (right side) that drives the pager motor. I have added various capacitors and a resistor to the amplifier stage. These affect the quality of the motor speed, making it turn on and off more naturally. The video shows me removing / replacing the pull-up resistor on the emitter of the second NPN transistor, illustrating its function (to provide a baseline motor speed so that the motor does not come to a complete stop, but instead undulates between a faster and a slower speed).