Studio residents and Mayfly founders Barney Heywood, Lucy Telling and Tim Cole recently took a trip to Hampshire in search of hatching mayflies. Mayflies only live for a single day, or even just a few hours after hatching, so to catch a glimpse of these rare and beautiful creatures was a special experience.

They found one or two along the Itchen Navigation Canal, and a few more at points along the River Test, but it was at Stockbridge that their quest was truly rewarded.

“...up along a tributary we came across the looping dance of hundreds of mayflies – with their distinctive triple tails that rose and glided back down, rose and glided back down, resting now and then on the fence post or wire, or on reeds or grasses beside the stream.” Professor Tim Cole, Co-founder and Director

In celebration of this annual natural wonder, this summer Mayfly are giving away Sound Stickers for everyone to enjoy. In exchange, they would love to hear your Mayfly stories and ideas. They want you to tell them how you use your free Mayfly Stickers by emailing a title, photo, audio file and short description, or sharing a story or idea on Twitter or Instagram using #MYMAYFLY.

They will send a pack of 20 stickers for each #MYMAYFLY story that they feature on their website and a Mayfly Sound Journal to their favourite four. They have distributed Mayfly Sound Stickers in cafes, museums and venues across Bristol (including Watershed!) – look out for the eye-catching yellow design and beautiful Mayfly illustrations.

“One of the things we’re most excited about is to see what people do with Mayfly. We’ve had lots of ideas for how the Journals and Stickers might be used, but have also been delighted and surprised by the suggestions that people have come up with so far.”

Lucy Telling, Co-founder and Director