Kyphi Workshop September 19, 2015
In a week or so I'll begin ordering what I don't have in stock for this upcoming workshop. I got a fat glob of galbanum resin after using the last of a four-ounce container of liquid galbanum resin, which was a real eye-opener (the glob). The new resin is a sticky wad of balsamic, grass-green, woody, cigarette butt goodness -- well, good if you like those sorts of smells. As I cleaned the studio storage closet, I was able to locate a few jars of resins and whatnot that I'd forgotten about, and I now have a huge chest filled to overflowing with Kyphi and incense ingredients and tools. I've also got quite the collection of clay mortars and pestles. I was thinking that I need to find or build a nice wooden chest for all this stuff, something with wheels and a handle, like a cart, and then I thought, no! What would really be nice is a genuine gypsy wagon! Can you imagine? The Kyphi Show on the road in a brightly painted and beautiful gypsy wagon? It would be too much fun. But for now, a portable chest will have to do.
The last time I was mulling over whether to make stick incense I ended up making cones instead, which kind of bummed me out. The paste wasn't sticky enough when I began rolling it, but it turned out that about halfway through making cones, the paste became sticky enough and I could have rolled them onto sticks, but the wee one was helping and I didn't want to stop mid stream and introduce her to another technique when she'd barely gotten the cones down -- or, rather, the 'witch's hats' as she calls them. I'm beginning to get the itch to make another batch of stick incense. Now that I have and adore this new galbanum resin, I'm thinking incense with that in it, then later an incense with red champa flower absolute as the main component. Making stick incense is so much more meditative than rolling cones, but less meditative than making Kyphi. I can hardly wait for the workshop. The energy of all the students that goes into the finished work is so much MORE than what solo Kyphi making produces. It's surprising, really.
The students at the Natural Perfume Academy are on a break until August 10th, which frees a little more time for me to mess about in the studio. Time. It doesn't actually exist, yet here we are, struggling to find more of it. I'm using the time to finish up a perfume project, and then take the bones of that project and expand it into something else, the first perfume of 2015 for The Scented Djinn. My track record these past few years is one lovely perfume per year, which makes for a very short selection list of perfume in the apothecary. I must get cracking on making new ones. Hopefully the fall will produce the necessary magic in the air to get the perfume-making ball rolling again.
Please, if you're in the area or can take a drive -- a bit of a road trip -- please attend the Kyphi Workshop hosted by Seasons of Spirit in Sanger, CA (20 minutes east of Fresno). Seasons of Spirit hosts all sorts of herbal and wise woman courses and classes, and also offers card reading services, plus, if that weren't enough, their gardens are astoundingly beautiful.
The last time I was mulling over whether to make stick incense I ended up making cones instead, which kind of bummed me out. The paste wasn't sticky enough when I began rolling it, but it turned out that about halfway through making cones, the paste became sticky enough and I could have rolled them onto sticks, but the wee one was helping and I didn't want to stop mid stream and introduce her to another technique when she'd barely gotten the cones down -- or, rather, the 'witch's hats' as she calls them. I'm beginning to get the itch to make another batch of stick incense. Now that I have and adore this new galbanum resin, I'm thinking incense with that in it, then later an incense with red champa flower absolute as the main component. Making stick incense is so much more meditative than rolling cones, but less meditative than making Kyphi. I can hardly wait for the workshop. The energy of all the students that goes into the finished work is so much MORE than what solo Kyphi making produces. It's surprising, really.
The students at the Natural Perfume Academy are on a break until August 10th, which frees a little more time for me to mess about in the studio. Time. It doesn't actually exist, yet here we are, struggling to find more of it. I'm using the time to finish up a perfume project, and then take the bones of that project and expand it into something else, the first perfume of 2015 for The Scented Djinn. My track record these past few years is one lovely perfume per year, which makes for a very short selection list of perfume in the apothecary. I must get cracking on making new ones. Hopefully the fall will produce the necessary magic in the air to get the perfume-making ball rolling again.
Please, if you're in the area or can take a drive -- a bit of a road trip -- please attend the Kyphi Workshop hosted by Seasons of Spirit in Sanger, CA (20 minutes east of Fresno). Seasons of Spirit hosts all sorts of herbal and wise woman courses and classes, and also offers card reading services, plus, if that weren't enough, their gardens are astoundingly beautiful.
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