Laney Birkhead, printmaker

Laney Birkhead is a printmaker and gave a talk about her recent work.
She described how, as a beekeeper, she became interested in the problems facing bees and decided to create an artwork to highlight their plight. After finding references to the 50,000 bees needed for a thriving hive and the 50,000 miles flying to create a pound of honey she decided to aim for an artwork of 50,000 bee images.

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The project involved more work than was first thought. Many groups were involved, both adult and children. Images taken from film by Paul Harris.

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The bees were printed onto hexagonal sections for sewing together by volunteers. The project inspired local interest in the community and involvement of children and schools.

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The results displayed in the format of honey frames and exhibited at St Roberts School and Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, a section shown below.

St Roberts Catholic School Installation with artist, Laney Birkhead

A short film by Paul Harris was shown of the inspiration and process of the project. This can be viewed at http://laneybirkhead.com/Swarm-A-Film-by-Paul-Harris

Printmaking
Laney showed us her printing plates and described the different print processes she uses, including collagraph & carborundum printing, etching onto metal plates, and monoprinting.

Various Printing Plates

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The plates are used to produce prints.

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Laney runs print workshops, see details  > Printmaking Workshops

 

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