One of the pleasures of collecting wood art is finding items which compliment each other. That is the case with these elements. The original piece was called 36 B Cup created by Malcolm Zander of Ottawa, Canada. He did the large cup and spent his winter holiday creating 36 bees in his exacting style. The piece was auctioned off at the Pittsburgh AAW to raise funds for breast cancer research in Canada. My wife, Karen, and I were the lucky enough to have the high bid. I felt something was missing so I had a glass artist friend cut a piece of honey colored glass in puddle shape so appeared a liquid has spilled from the cup which attracted bees. The cup cakes — made by John Lucas from Tennessee — had been part of our collection for several years. So naturally they became a place for the bees to land. John Shannon of Milford, Ohio and I are both members of the Cincinnati-based Ohio Valley Woodturners Guild. He made the caramel apples and platters in the spring of 2018. A lot of turners do fruit, but his application of candy-apple red auto paint made the apples really stand out. When I saw apples I knew I had just the place for them with the bees. Putting all this together helps highlight the talents of the artists and adds personality to our collection.
- Dave Long