Sandwiches

BEE WEEK, DAY 2: THE KING

Here he is: the king bee in all his glory. Andrei Tillman: a straight-up hybrid of Clovis and Darnell, at least in appearance. And maybe in attitude too, though that's hard to tell with our ignorance of all things Ukrainian. Like most Anglo-Americans, our non-English language skills are sadly lacking—and anyway Ukrainian wasn't on offer in our little public schools. But Andrei has the supreme confidence of all Tillmans and that seems to serve him well with his insect subjects. They go about their busy business as if he weren't there. To wit: a little animation of His Highness handling a bee-laden comb on deck in day two part two.

BEE WEEK, DAY 1: THE QUEEN

Andrei Tillman, Clovis and Darnell's cousin from Ukraine (though if you saw them together you'd swear he was another brother), brought his beehives out to the shop compound for some reason that's totally beyond us. Apparently it's part of some relocation scheme, but really, we have no idea. Part of our confusion stems from the fact that Andrei doesn't speak much English. But apparently he speaks a soothing version of Bee since the critters are very chill in his presence. So much so that we can sneak in with him and get some fine close-up shots. Like this one here of a bee-covered comb, with the Queen in the mix. That's her—the ever so slightly longer one with less-pronounced stripes in the top center of the photo. More bees all week.

PHOTOS BY OUR MOMS: DORCAS TILLMAN, PART 5

We're starting to think that our moms, Marcia Larabee and Donna Altieri, don't even look at this blog. Why else wouldn't they send us any photos, knowing as they do that we love their pictures and that we've got this "Photos by our Moms" series of posts and that we have to hear it from Clovis and Darnell ENDLESSLY that their mom is kicking our moms' asses in this very informal exhibition/competition? Regardless, props again to Dorcas Tillman. Beautiful shot as always (but your sons are still world-class doofuses).

THE HANDS BEHIND OUR HAND-MADE FURNITURE

They're not clean and they're more than a little roughed up, but they do what they're told and mostly don't fuck things up too badly. The pulse of this .gif reminds us of the throb they've been delivering over the past month from abuse and overuse—reminds us too that every once in a while you have to take a day off to do something other than make furniture. Today is a day for something other than making furniture. Tomorrow? We'll see.