Fifty Bees CIC

10/06/2026

22/05/2026

🌼🐝 Exciting News from Fifty Bees CIC! 🐝🌼

We are so excited to announce that Fifty Bees CIC will be exhibiting at Ham Hill’s marvellous new Visitor Centre in the exhibition space!

Come and discover what we do, explore our future plans for our non-profit pollinator advocacy organisation, and see some of Lydia’s beautiful bees. Learn how we connect art, education, and environmental awareness to inspire people of all ages. 🌿🎨

📍 Opening Saturday 13th June📅 Exhibition runs daily until Sunday 5th July

We would love to see you there — please come along and support our buzzing mission! 💛

14/05/2026

Fifty bees will be here xx

📣 So with it being only one month until the 2026 Green Scythe Fair! 🌱🎪We thought you may like to see what workshops are available on the Saturday 13th Workshop Day to book along with getting your ticket for the grand event on the Sunday 14th for the Green Scythe Fair. Click on the Tickets and Courses link to see more. www.greenfair.org.uk

06/05/2026

This is bee 242 Nomada Obtusifrons or Female Flat-ridged Nomad Bee.
Love this pot, don’t you?

It is 4 x actual size and made from a vintage card pot, with wool, vintage kamibari gold and silk thread and embroidery thread.

Ahhh, and the companion artwork is so beautiful by .art .
Such delicacy, such beauty. And what is this made of, you might ask?
Read what Sheena says:
“A solitary parasitic species, also known as a Cuckoo Bee, due to its habit of using the nests of others. A pollinator found where its hosts are established including edge of woodlands and alongside rivers in dry gravelly flats.
Drawn to the nature and life of this bee, my research has taken me to another likeminded soul, the Cuckoo Bird.
Combing insect wings and patterns with bird like features, a hybrid form has evolved, using paper thin material of recycled teabags, music sheets and re-arranged exerts of vintage lyrics. A melancholy piece of words and image emerging, a means of survival, reflecting the fragile stitches of life and nature, the call of the cuckoo and the wild.”

acearts mixedmediaart sheenaspaceyart

01/05/2026

This is another of my favourites bees - the colour is gorgeous.
So, this is bee 209 Andrena similis or Female Red-backed Mining Bee.
3 x actual size
Vintage gramophone needle tin, wool, vintage kamibari gold, silver and silk thread and embroidery thread.
The bee’s companion was one of the most popular pieces for the school children - we placed a stool, and the children queued, took it in turns to see what was inside the little spy hole, and then to look at the puppet made by - they loved it.
This is what Duncan says about his piece:
“With sound work. (*Musician: Adam Clark)
This piece is a response to my investigations into the life of the Red-Backed mining Bee. I am interested in the security provided by choosing to live underground and the potential for storytelling using diorama, sound and stop motion animation. This work is in collaboration with friend and Norfolk sound artist and musician Adam Clark.”

30/04/2026

Good morning on this beautiful sunshiny day.

This is little Nomada errans, or Female Purbeck Nomad Bee in its small vintage cardboard pot. I think this one is a bit of a cutie.
She is 3 x actual size, and made of needlefelted wool, vintage kamibari silver and silk thread and embroidery thread

The pair of companion works by are so finely made, so perfect - I’m always in awe of people who can work with precision like Amy.
This is what Amy says about her piece, Declining Cuckoo:
“The piece responds to the decline of the Nomada errans, likely now extinct in Britain, and its relationship to the host bee Andrena nitidiuscula. The paired pieces are each made up of 144 individual elements, one for each of the years since the bee was first found in 1878. The piece aims to capture the similarities between the bee species, essential to the nature of the host/parasite relationship, their visual differences, most notable texture and markings and a sense of absence with no sightings of Nomada errans in Britain for the last 40 years.

This piece comes with its unidentical twin, the two pieces form the work.”
Isn’t that clever?

paperandstitch mixedmedia penonpaper

22/04/2026

Vintage Laura Ashley jacket
Bees
Spiders and Lytes Cary

14/04/2026

This is bee 210 Andrena Simillima –or Female Buff Banded Mining Bee. She is 3 x actual size and made from Vintage powder compact, wool, vintage kamibari gold, silver and silk thread and embroidery thread.
Do swipe through to see the companion piece by Emma.
During the exhibition, people stared at this piece, it’s so popular.
But even a few of those that stare miss the hidden secret.
This is what Emma Le Lohe says about her wonderful piece, Precious World:
*SOUND UP to hear Emma talk about this piece*:
“This rare solitary bee has managed to survive in small numbers in the UK.
My research took me to part of the Cornish coastal path that it inhabits and I was inspired to recreate the world in which it thrives and the connection I felt there.
I chose mosaic for its mindful creative process, allowing me to collect and piece together the elements to recreate the interwoven wild landscape and the secret world of the bee within. When you look closely you notice so much, and I invite the viewer to interact with this piece so that I may convey that experience.

Mosaic Assemblage with vintage ceramic pieces, incorporating pottery shards, stone, shell and sand foraged from Cornish costal paths and beaches.”