Honey Fingers

GOOD NATURED: design art architecture celebrates creative projects by designers, artists and architects working to design a better future. These practitioners are focussed on creating outcomes that are both beautiful and good for the planet.

About Honey Fingers

Nic Dowse originally trained as an architect before he formed Honey Fingers, a Melbourne creative collective of artists, designers and florists. He produces publications, hosts workshops, participates in and curates exhibitions and encourages a wide public education in beekeeping, nature and beauty.

Honey Fingers is an interdisciplinary, deeply collaborative, beekeeping practices that places Apis mellifera (the common honeybee) at the centre of all works. Projects investigate, communicate, and promote thoughtful consideration of humanity’s impact upon, and dislocation from, the natural world. Emphasis is placed on urban food ecologies. Mediums used adapt to the audience, media channel, and collaborators and include sculptural works, photography, research, essays, lectures, poetry, events, music, architecture for non-human clients, and educational classes.

The Honey Fingers collective sits at the intersection of art, design and ecology. We are interested in communicating our practice through the lens of artist Gu Wenda’s term "Artwholeism" - a constantly evolving multi-artform emerging at the confluence of art, social practice, community, design, poetry, biology, hospitality, and urban ecosystems.

Beekeeping in our community creates an opportunity for our informal network to connect with urban ecosystems, food webs and (often quite beautiful) more-than-human experiences in inner-city landscapes.

About one in every three bites of food is made possible by bees and other pollinators. Honeyfinger’s inspiring work reminds us of the importance of this essential, climate threatened species and the beauty bees contribute to our lives.

Connect with Honey Fingers: @honey_fingers honeyfingers.com.au

Honey Finger's Project

The REUNION
The REUNION installation reflects humanity’s impact on the environment over time, documenting collaborations with bees in a variety of ways including sculpture, video and poetry. Materials used in the exhibition will be recycled where possible (a potter’s slurry for the seed bombs), already exist (honeycomb vase) or are biodegradable (floristry, honeycomb).

Reunion the Art of Beekeeping, 2020
We reconcile
somewhere between
deep time
and an ephemeral present

We reconcile
somewhere between
animal architecture
and earth architecture

We reconcile
somewhere between
scientific geology
and sacred geometry

We reconcile
somewhere between
nectar
and salt

We reconcile
somewhere between the sting
and the endorphins

We reconcile
somewhere between
the unique frequency of her wings beating
and the white hum of the Anthropocene

Honey Finger's Good Natured Action

Visitors to the exhibition at Australian Design Centre can take home a seed bomb to love bomb an area you want in bloom or use the instructions below to make your own.

Ingredients
¼ to ¾ cup of seeds
¾ cup of seed-raising mix
2 cups of powdered clay (upcycled if possible)
½ to ¾ cup of plain water

Method
1. Mix the soil, clay, and seeds with a little over half of the water to make a dough. Knead gently until smooth. You should end up with a texture like playdough.

2. Shape into twenty cent sized balls, adding a little more water at a time if the mixture is too flaky. Avoid making the dough too wet.

3. Place the balls on a wire rack or cardboard sheet and put them in a cool, shady place for a few days to dry.

4. Store in a container until ready to use.