GUARDIANS - CHAPTER I - MELIPONA

In the times we live in, focusing our attention on the small things is prudent; isolating our attention on nature - performing its balancing act - is the most biting indicator of the emergency we are living through.

The proportion of flowers in a space is directly linked to the number of eggs—future bees—that the queen bee lays in the cells; the scarcity of flowers in our urban environment is part of everyday life and saddens the eye, the soul, and the hives.

Just as this collection seeks to adorn our bodies with micro sculptures that pay tribute to honey-producing hymenoptera - bees -, its spirit is to adorn balconies, sidewalks, gardens or vacant lots with those tiny, fragrant and nutritious chalice-shaped beings that humans call flowers.

Together with Paraíso Colibrí - a nursery specializing in native pollinating flowers - we have established a collaboration to deliver a jewel, accompanied by floral species in the form of seeds.

This collection is the first installment of a new stage in María Mariscal Jewelry, in which Gabriela García Mariscal, its founder and artist, seeks to link projects in other spheres of science, creation and management, which deal with nature, its dissemination, protection and rescue.

• Producers
• Peasants
• Biologists
• Veterinarians
• Agronomists
• Teachers
• Sociologists
• Anthropologists

These are new bonds to build to make these collections a reality, which go hand in hand with research and learning to honor and protect our land.

 This collection is crafted in 925 sterling silver using the lost-wax casting technique and set with Imperial Topaz. For some, the name derives from the ancient Sanskrit word meaning fire, representing the medicinal honey of the Melipona bees, an endangered species that pollinates grains, fruit trees, and vegetables, and which is central to the worldview of the indigenous peoples of the greater Anáhuac region.

 “Melipona Bechii” is a stingless bee that has coexisted with the indigenous cultures of our country for thousands of years. We see it depicted in Mayan codices, inhabiting Jobones (tree trunks where they build their intricate hives) hanging from the neck of the deity Ah Mucen Cab, the god who gives them to us for sustenance and medicine.

The tribute register and the Mendoza codex show that among the products that were paid as tribute to Mexico Tenochtitlan, honey in jugs was recorded at the same level as other luxury items, such as blankets, warrior costumes, gold objects, amber, precious feathers, all luxury objects; for ritual and specialized use by the power and religious elite.

The spirit of the hive is the ordinance of nature, the enigma of intelligence, of will, of destinies, the end of means and of causes, the most incomprehensible organization of the humblest act of life.

 

Maeterlinck Maurice, 1901

Campaign photos taken at the spring 2023 hive division in the Cazones nursery, Veracruz. This is what a Melipona hive of the species looks like.
Scaptortigona Mexicana known as “Negritas” or “Angelitas”.

Acknowledgments:
University of the Environment UMA Valle de Bravo Acatitlán
Colin Apiaries Valle de Bravo

Hummingbird Paradise
Cazones Nursery, Veracruz
Tree that grows crooked, Roma neighborhood
Kolikje Puebla Reserve