A Honeycomb Teapot

Designer Tomáš Gabzdil Libertíny of Studio Libertiny collaborated with an army of bees to complete Thousand Years, his latest experimental beeswax sculpture. Commissioned by the French fine silver manufacturer Christofle, the large teapot-shaped vessel was created with the help of Dutch beekeeper Johan Beckers and his group of 60,000 bees. The unique work of art is a continuation of Libertíny’s fascination with harnessing the epic power of nature.

Libertíny created a metal framework of the teapot before allowing the bees to form their comb around it.

Speaking about the work, Libertíny said: “I have been always amazed by the power of nature and its epic force that drives forward slowly but steadily. The ‘made by bees’ project allowed me to plug in to this source and guide it to create a mythology as well as a proposal.

“The title of the work ‘Thousand Years’ is not only reflecting the amazing materials properties—beeswax can literally last thousands of years—but also the scale of human life in the face of the apparent eternity of the universe.”