Back From the Folk School: Teaching Bees, Art, & Curiosity at John C. Campbell Folk School

A Week of Honeybees, Pop-Up Books, Creativity, and Connection

Jenna York, founder and designer of Jeometry Beewear™, just returned from a memorable week teaching at the John C. Campbell Folk School for Taste of the Folk School: All About Bees, an immersive week centered around honeybees, creativity, education, and hands-on learning.

The week brought together four instructors and sixteen students for a deep dive into the world of bees through art, food, observation, and storytelling. From honey tastings and wax luminaries to baklava, honeycomb candy, and educational workshops, the experience celebrated the many ways bees connect us to both nature and community.

For Jenna, the week felt especially meaningful.

Long before founding Jeometry Beewear™, she grew up around beekeeping through her grandfather, Martin “Bee Man” Hoernig, a beekeeper, educator, and advocate who helped shape her lifelong connection to the hive. Now, years later, Jenna continues that legacy in her own way: teaching, creating, and helping others see bees with curiosity and wonder.

During her classes, students learned honeybee anatomy before sketching and transforming their drawings into intricate multi-layered pop-up books. Each day began with educational videos exploring bee life and reproduction, helping students better understand the complexity and intelligence of the hive before putting pencil to paper.

And perhaps the most magical part? Every afternoon, students worked alongside a live observation hive, watching honeybees actively build queen cells and cap honey while they created.

Before dinner each evening, Jenna carefully returned the bees to their apiary.

It was science, art, education, and beekeeping all existing together in the same room.

“I’m so proud of our students’ creativity, energy, and willingness to learn to draw bees, even if it was way outside their comfort zone,” Jenna shared afterward.

One student joked: “They won’t confuse it with a monarch butterfly.” Nope. Definitely not!

At Jeometry Beewear™, we believe beekeeping is about so much more than honey. It’s education. Stewardship. Creativity. Community. And passing knowledge from one generation to the next.

This week at the Folk School was a beautiful reminder of exactly that. 💛