Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny of Studio Libertiny has sent us images of his new series of Honeycomb Vases, which are made by bees. Update: this project is included in Dezeen Book of Ideas, which is on sale now for £12.

We featured the original vase - called With a Little Help of the Bees - back in April, after seeing it at the Droog show in Milan (plus there are a couple more images here).

The vases are created by placing a basic beeswax mould printed with a honeycomb pattern into a beehive. The bees then do the rest.

It takes 40,000 bees a week to make each vase, each of which is completely different.

The vases also vary in colour and smell depending on the flowers that are in season.

Here is some info from Libertiny:

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The Honeycomb Vase "Made by Bees"

Edition 2007

Libertiny's "collaboration" with honey bees pushes the boundaries of so-called conventional design by defying mass production and enabling nature to create what would typically be considered a man-made product. Studio Libertiny's bee vase not only tells the story, but does so in an ecologically derived, natural way that concedes the human manufacturing process to something simpler and more beautiful.

The material comes from flowers as a by-product of bees and in the form of a vase ends up serving flowers on their last journey.

It took 40,000 bees and one week to make a single vase. Not meaning it as a euphamism, we called this process "slow prototyping".

Credits:

Concept: Tomáš Gabzdil Libertiny, 2006
Photo: Raoul Kramer
Beekeepers: Cornelius Bunthof, Ad Staals