“Bees Purple”

Properties & Qualities

Application

Sample Making Art

Qualities

Textured

Colour

Blue White Violet Other

Sample Information

Date of creation

Designed April 2021, Framed Piece created July 2022.

Dimensions

width 8inches x height 10inches x depth 1inch

Weight

712g

Culture & Context

This piece is inspired by bees incredible ability to see the world through ultra violet (UV) light. This reveals hidden UV patterns on flowers and in other areas of nature to help attract the bees. It also allows them to see colours outside of our vision spectrum. Bees see the colour yellow differently to us through UV light and scientists have called this colour a “bees purple”.

Using a blend of iridescent ever-changing yellow and purple yarn I have tried to recreate a similar interpretation of this colour that reflects sunlight revealing different hues of yellow-purple depending on where it is shining on the material. The honeycomb weave structure is also inspired by the bees honeycomb structure from their hives. This strong and thick structure is hollow and has many different functions and qualities. The woven structures very similar to the bees structure which is why it was used. Mimicking the structure yet still being different.

Process & Production

The process of this material was hand weaving the honeycomb structure on a 24 shaft ARM Touch60 Loom using all 24 shafts. A pointed draft was used to create the honeycomb with a warp width of 12” and sample length of 12” also. The warp has 60 ends per inch. There is a lot of time spent on setting up and calculating the woven structure as well as the actual weaving of the sample. Once the weaving is complete the sale edges are stitched and secured before mounting them onto the canvas for framing.

Recipe Details

24 shafts using an ARM Touch 60 loom.

Pointed draft was used with a warp width of 12” and sample length of 12”.
There are 60 ends per inch (epi) for the warp and a weight of 150g.
Warp yarn : ice-blue monofilament polyester yarn from dead-stock yarn from Botony
weaving mill.

A honeycomb structure across 24 shafts was the structure used, the largest
honeycomb structure possible with this set up.

Weft yarn : a super fine iridescent purple yarn (82% polyester iridescent & 18%
polyamide) and a special iridescent yellow yarn (82% polyester iridescent & 18%
polyamide).

Once weaving was complete, sample was removed form loom and edges were
stitched to secure before mounting to canvas to frame.