National Honey Show 2013

 I’m ever so slightly excited about today’s National Honey show!  I’ve got a whole day of bee keeping stuff to do!

I’ve booked myself into 2 workshops, one about making beeswax and honey based skin care products and one about stepping up to becoming a commercial bee keeper.  On top of that there’s a whole show worth of stuff to walk through and admire….

So much honey!

 

So many different colours…

 

Some fabulous silverware is on offer for those lucky enough to win their class…

I really must find out what I need to do to win the HJ Wadey trophy…imagine having this sat in your home for the coming year…

There are some cracking contraptions…

Imagine the size of the honey jar you’d need for this Stirrer….

Or you could have your house number made with little holes to offer homes to solitary bees…

I had just about enough time before my first workshop to find my needlework and discover that I’d won !!  Woot!!!

Though with only 2 entries Black-work vs. felt making hardly seems like a fair comparison – I can’t think of any other place where they’d be in the same class up against each other!

So into the first workshop of the day.  Dr Sara Robb and some simple skin care products made from bees wax and assorted other waxes and oils.

Who knew that cocoa butter, bees wax and vegetable oil melted together so easily…

 

And with a quick warm through and simple stir becomes  lip balm

 

Meanwhile, a different combination of wax, this time including emulsifying wax and a big spoon full of honey…

 

Plus some really fast whisking…. Produces emulsification…

 

And if you can manage to control the whisk well enough to NOT splatter the entire work bench with your cream, it gradually turns from the consistency of single cream…to double…to a really light and fluffy hand cream...

All in all I had great fun and came away just in time for lunch with a small collection of bees wax based cosmetics…

 

And a chunk of propolis based soap..lovingly chunked up by teacher…with a gadget that we were all grateful was only going to be used for chopping up soap!

 

After a quick bite to eat I went in search of the honey labels competition.  There was quite a lot more competition in this class than there had been for the needlework, 19 entries to be precise.  But even so, I was disappointed to find that my label hadn’t even got a “commended”.  :(

Fair play to those that were placed though, they all dealt with those pesky regulations in their own way!

 

 

 

The afternoon’s workshop was all about stepping up from hobby bee keeper to commercial production.  Dan Basterfield told the tales- warts and all – I got the feeling some of the lessons learnt had bee learnt the hard way by Dan.  No photos but plenty to think about on the short drive home…not least of which is where to put the required minimum of 20 hives to get myself on the first rung of the ladder , associate bee farmer, ready to build to a minimum of 40 hives within 2 years of that date!

I think I’d better start with making sure I have enough honey to actually enter Honey in the show next year! - With MY Favourite Label !

EDIT:  

Couldn't resist sharing my rather smart certificate !!   SQUEEEE!!!!

Needlework, Honey and Labels

 Surrey bee keepers are really rather fortunate to have the national honey show almost on their door step at St George’s college, Weybridge.  It was just too tempting ..I had to enter something into the show.  But with only 11lbs of honey to show for my efforts this year I decided it wasn’t going to be honey…..

Thankfully I had this sampler piece of black-work sitting in a drawer looking very unfinished and in need of an excuse to be finished off…

Now let me say from the outset that this isn't my own design. I bought it as a pattern from the Meineck Design group  - sadly I can't find them on the internet any more, but this is a lovely black-work sampler and I obviously bought it a fair while ago long before I ever thought I might be a real bee keeper.

I was rather thrown by the rules and regulations that stipulated that the back of the piece of work needed to be accessible for judging.  After all who goes into the Louvre and takes the Mona Lisa off the wall to peer at the back to know it’s a great painting? 

Anyhoooo with a bit of assistance from ‘im indoors a simple wooden frame was made, covered in muslin to protect the needlework…

The edge of the work was hastily bound..

And I stretched it across the frame to get rid of all those nasty creases.

(note to self: don’t leave needlework folded in the drawer for years after you’ve finished it)

Those mitred corners leave a little to be desired…but hopefully the front will impress the judges enough....that they won’t feel the need to turn it over…

Now onto those labels.

It has to be said honey jar labels are a bit of a “thing” for me.  Thanks to trading standards and EU legislation there a number of fairly tedious regulations that have to be adhered to if you are going to sell honey.  Yes I understand its all about protecting the consumer and ensuring the integrity of the supply line should a problem occur..but frankly the part designed labels you drop your details into from print companies are just too twee and “meh” for my tastes. 

I wanted something a bit special and different to make my honey stand out against the competition.  You may have noticed that in that though process there’s already a little bit of thinking that I may one day have enough to be able to sell it on a bit of a larger scale.  Thankfully I had a bit of help (well a lot of help) from a friendly graphic designer.

So here’s my label...

On little half pound jars and big pound jars..

I think they look fab! Far better than my photography shows… Lets hope those honey show judges do too!!

Walsall Quilter - for one day only!

There isn’t much sign from the outside that the inside of this church has been a hive of activity from 7am this morning…

The locals have barely noticed all the too-ing and fro-ing

Today is the bi-annual exhibition of 

I get to become a temporary member for 8 hours.  This year I’ve graduated from hanging quilts in the church to setting up the sales table…..We get about 2 hours to cover the tables in all sorts of quilting and needle crafting related goodies to be sold in aid of a local charity – this year its Walsall Samaritans.  What a lot of gorgeous donations we have to sell….

 

 

By 9:45am I really think I’ve earned my hobbit like second breakfast of a scone and a cup of tea…

By 10am there is a queue of people outside the church, patiently waiting in the drizzle to come In and see what the quilters have been up to in the last 2 years.  What a treat they have inside, the church is hardly recognisable…

There’s a children’s corner by the font

Then some inspired by last year’s patriotism for the Olympics…

The altar is  just about recognisable behind all the class workshop projects…

 Just a little bit thrilled to see one of last year’s scissor keeps in action in a needlework box.  Hoping this one goes home and is put to full use by its owner.

Behind the altar is a fabulous Christmas corner ….

 

 

Even a little bit of English gardening gets brought inside…

There’s also a space for the bunting made to celebrate the “twinning” of Walsall with Mulhouse in France…

For me, the big quilts, each displayed in a pew of their own, win the day, here’s a few of my favourites…

By the end of the day, several hundred very generous people had been through the exhibition and sales hall and having bought teas and cake, raffle tickets for quilts or bid in the Chinese auction for lovely patchwork bags…

Enough money had ben raised to give the Samaritans a cheque for £1,000.  So I think its fair to say that everyone involved had great fun and although we were all tired, it was widely agreed it was in a jolly good cause.

EDIT: for the record. Not all of the scissor keepers sold. L 

BUT all of the little houses did sell so I think I know what I’ll be making for the next 23 months before the next sales day!