Dreaming in Halves

I dreamt of things in halves last night. A log left burning in the fireplace broke in half and lay smoldering in two pieces in the fireplace, an important paper from the Department of Motor Vehicles became torn in half while it was being handed to someone else who disrespectfully yanked it from my hand, a family took sides, a little girl was in jeopardy of being legally separated from her family -- it was bizarre! I came to realize the theme in these dreams as I was dreaming them, so upon waking I soaked a bit in bed trying to sort it all out. The only 'wholes' in the dream/dreams were my studio/perfumery, and my computer. Everything else had some kind of 'half of' symbology attached to it. The halving of everything created chaos, so I'm going to assume that the dream was a warning not to let these things happen -- the halving of the log caused one piece to slightly roll out of the fireplace creating a potential fire hazard; the tearing and halving of the DMV paperwork meant going through the process again of getting new paperwork; the family splitting up meant the few strands still holding them together were going to be potentially severed forever, and the little girl ... the little girl was my heart and losing her the way it was beginning to play out in the dream was painfully soul wrenching, so this was the obvious point in the dream in which I woke up before I went straight up bat sh*t crazy on someone to prevent this looming separation. Or all this symbology could mean that I'm fearful of losing control. Not that I have or had any to begin with, but fearful of things happening with or without my intervention, despite my best efforts, without my consent, against my wishes, and all that muckity-muck. Or perhaps the dreams mean none of these things and are simply a result of the chemical brain-belly connection made by nibbling a piece of raw bread dough moments before going to bed (said Scrooge).

Blast from the past ~ the Academy graduates are getting together this winter and spring for a formulation project -- ambits we call them -- in which we pick a classic perfume pre-1969 and attempt to create/recreate its likeness from all natural raw materials. We were inspired to delve into the classics by Amanda Feeley, perfumer for Esscentual Alchemy, who recreated the famous Djedi perfume made by Guerlain in 1927. A full, unopened 1 oz bottle (I am assuming it was 1 oz) of vintage/antique Djedi sold on Ebay just a few days ago for $3053.00 USD. Wow. There is a great deal of interest in these classics and I thought it might make for a fun project for the graduated-but-still-studying students to practice in. Some perfumers poo-poo the idea of recreating classics and see it as 'cheating' because there is a blueprint for the perfume's creation, however sketchy the information. The sad (or happy) truth is, they cannot be 100% accurate to the original as aroma chemicals were used in nearly all of them (yeah, all of them, I'm sure) and NBP's don't do that, so we have to improvise using home extractions, tinctures, and enfleurage results, which, in my mind, makes a more creatively formulated perfume than the original, no disrespect, so blueprints or no blueprints, you're still working to be creative and original. I'm considering Quelques Fleurs, but haven't set my mind on it yet. Our last ambit which ran the time span from summer 2012 to fall 2012 resulted in some damn good kyphi incense and perfumes. Kyphi was the name of the game, and we're still playing it. At least I am. I have a line-up of kyphi projects for the coming year 2013 which I will happily share with you for a small fee ~ ha!