About

bear among bees started in 2009 as an anonymous craft blog. During a major creative block I decided to get involved in some crafting memes and learn some techniques like crochet. This got me making stuff from other peoples patterns without having to make too many major creative decisions. It worked, the regular making and interaction with the online crafting community plus the motivation to update my blog broke my creative block, while also sparking an interest in online communities, networking and communication.

Now bear among bees is a place to document/archive my projects, collect inspirations and things that feed my ideas, plus it is to share and promote the artists I enjoy. Please feel free to leave a comment or say hello.

People sometimes ask about the title of this blog, why bear among bees? Bears are one of my favorite animals, have you ever seen a bear trying to get at honey in a beehive? I think it is a good metaphor for the art life. I recently came across the below quote by Leonard Cohen on his writing process.

“It's like a bear stumbling into a beehive or a honey cache: I'm stumbling right into it and getting stuck, and it's delicious and it's horrible and I'm in it and it's not very graceful and it's very awkward and it's very painful and yet there's something inevitable about it.” 1.

You can also find out more about my work at http://clairebushby.com/


1. In Leonard Cohen: Several Lifetimes Already, Pico Iyer. Cited at http://www.shambhalasun.com. Originally published in the September 1998 Shambhala Sun magazine.