Nightshade's Art's Honeycomb Bracelet

Honeycomb Honeybee leather cuff bracelet
This honeybee was painted on to a carved and dyed honeycomb made of a scrap of tooling leather. The cuff itself is made from recycled upholstery leather.

This is my entry for the Bee Challenge.

My shop - http://www.nightshadesart.etsy.com
My blog - http://craftyequine.blogspot.com

Honeybee Helpers' First CHALLENGE!

August challenge time!
(I am not sure if we will do this monthly always- I guess we'll see how the first one goes.)
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5734040

Since we're the bee team, why not have a BEE CHALLENGE for our "initiation challenge"?

* Even if you already have bees in your shop, depending on how long your projects take to create- you could create another bee to keep in stock, or do something new and entirely different.
* If you can't come up with any bees for your shop, you could play around with something using the colors yellow and black, and/or find some cute bee charms to add to a project. (I've seen bee charms available around Etsy!)
* And, feel free to do any type of bee that you want. Our team focus may be on the honeybees, but if you're feeling more inclined toward a bumblebee or wasp, then so BEE it!
* I've seen many cute bee fabrics around local fabric stores, too.

Since we all use a vast variety of materials to create our work, it will be lots of fun to see what all of us come up with! If possible, it would be great to donate the proceeds from these new bees to a bee research charity as well.


Tentative date as of now to show and share your finished project: On or before August 31.

BEE sure to post the pictures of your bee on our Ning site!
(If you're not a member yet, please join! If you didn't get an invitation, I just need your email address. Convo it to samanthasartstudio on Etsy.)

We will also create a post in the Etsy forums and post links to our bees in our shops, too, as a way of promoting our team and all of our stores.

Happy Crafting!
Worker bees away!! Bzzzzzzzzzz...

Beekeeping and Green Roofs in Chicago

This may just qualify as shameless promotion of both my city and our Co-op but I wanted to share a video on rooftop gardens that TF1 (French Television) broadcast last evening. You get a birds eye view of the rooftop garden on Chicago's City Hall and the beehives maintained by Chicago Honey Co-op head beekeeper Michael Thompson. He has been keeping bees since he was 12 years old living in Kansas. The bees atop City Hall here do exceptionally well and receive no chemical or antibiotic treatments. Chicago also has a rooftop garden on the Cultural Center here, also with healthy beehives.
Two other Chicago rooftop gardens are also featured.
Here is the link http://videos.tf1.fr/video/news/0,,3921922,00-toits-verts-chicago-.html

Sent samples to the sampler :)

First of all... if you haven't already responded to this thread, please do so!
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5725388
And THANKS to those of you who already have!!

It would be so wonderful if we got everyone in here to introduce themselves and we could see all your FABULOUS shops!

Okay, back to the bloggin'...
I sent some samples to the sampler! Craftin Outlaws have an upcoming craft show and are giving away some goodie bags. I sent some 3.5" x 5" notecards (had a bunch of spare envelopes in the appropriate size just sitting here) and with each card, I included a little card with info on the honeybee helpers and my shop.
On the cards I also included the etsy search for BEETEAM, our team tag. I hope that those of you who are using it will get some sales! (Or even just views would be nice) :)


Eh, sorry for the lack of artistic photography/background. It's my summertime-and-super-easy-to-clean vinyl table cloth... But I love it!

Let's get things buzzing!

How about everyone stop by and say Hello in the *NEW* "End Of July Buzz" forum thread?
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5725388

The more we post and bump our thread, the more we promote our team and all of our shops!
I'd love to get everyone "introduced" (so to speak), since we all have BEES in common. So join in the chat and let us know a little about you, your shop, when and why you became fond of bees, etc.
It's tough for us, I know, since we're a global team and not just local.
But if we all start posting and letting each other know where we're from, maybe we'll find out that some of us are neighbors! That would be a great way to coordinate some CCD awareness events.

*******
Has anyone used the Chat feature in Etsy? Do you find it to be useful? If so, perhaps we should try and set up a chat!
*******

Lastly, let's try and see how many treasuries we can put together for our team! It's so exciting to put one together!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury.php
http://www.etsy.com/treasurywest.php

Use this Etsy feature to make a "sketch" of how you want your Treasury to look!
http://www.etsy.com/poster_sketch.php

You can do anything you want! Your favorite items from team members, or you can pick a color theme with team members' things and fill a treasury with blue, or bee colors yellow and black... You can do an eco-friendly theme... You could feature just bee items from team members' stores, or feature items that specifically donate to bee projects or charities. Use your imagination :)

I've already put together 3 Treasuries- I know they can be elusive, but if you are like me and tend to visit Etsy a few times a day at different times, you'll get one too! (It seems to be easier on weekends.)
For more information on Treasuries and all of the mysteries revealed, read these!
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5722826
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5531944

Thanks for everything everyone is doing- I see lots of you using the team tag ("beeteam")!
Yay for bees!

Bzzzzz......

Bee Team treasury with an Eco-Friendly theme!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=17019

I tried to pick the most eco-friendly things from team members that I could find.

Treasury expires on Wednesday... Check it out! :)

How $4 Million For Bee Research Is Spent - thedailygreen.com

How $4 Million For Bee Research Is Spent - thedailygreen.com

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UPDATE: Samples for the Sampler

http://www.homeofthesampler.com/

Looks like "Craftin' Outlaws" are looking for some samples to include in some goodie bags for their craft fair on August 16. Deadline to submit the samples is August 4th. The maximum amount of samples you can submit would be 100, but you can submit less if you like. They're looking for small items such as mini-soaps, pendants, keychains, magnets, a hair accessory, etc. Something that people can use and not *just* fliers, business cards, etc.

I was thinking if some of us from the Honeybee Helpers wanted to send in some samples, we could print out the BeePromo2.pdf (from the google group) and send that with our samples. That way, both your store and the bees might get a boost!


UPDATE: She responded to an email that I sent, inquiring about a minimum amount of donation items and said there is no minimum. So, if you want to do 5, 10, or 100, that's up to you :)
She also said a Honeybee Helpers paper team promo would be fine, too!


If any of you have some ideas of things you'd like to send in, add a comment here or post them on the chat thread on etsy! Maybe we can all send in a few small things.

What a great film!! And a great organization.

Got 9 minutes?

Then watch this fascinating film, "Every Third Bite".
http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/8/
(Winner of the Good Food Award!)

Thanks to our Etsy Honeybee Helpers Team member One Honey (Chicago Honey Co-op) for bringing this great film to my attention!

Chicago Honey Co-Op provides job opportunities for those who are under-employed and is owned by its members. They also have chemical free beehives and make all natural honey! An association who helps out people and bees.... does it get any better than that?

Visit their very informative website and learn more about the great things they do: http://chicagohoneycoop.com/ .

Where The Bees Are...

On my July 4 holiday, I got to spend a lot of time outside in my gardens, observing the many bumble bees (there are SO many here) and other insects. I was lucky enough to be outside while a single honeybee was visiting a few flowers! (I've only seen them a couple other times this year.) Unfortunately, my camera had run out of batteries and they were in the process of charging- so while I don't have photographic evidence of the honeybee itself, I did get some pictures later of a couple types of flowers that she was visiting while I followed her around for a bit.

I'm in Maryland- zone 7- and if these plants bloom in your zone, maybe they'll bring some honeybees into your garden as well.

White balloon flower


Bee Balm (two bumble bees on this one)

I took a walk later in the day and observed a honeybee visiting a Magnolia tree down the street.
Also in years past, I've seen honeybees all over the black-and-blue Salvia in the garden, but yesterday's honeybee wasn't into that particular plant.

If it wasn't raining today, I'd go outside and try to get pictures of honeybees- Hopefully later this summer I'll be able to share some :)