Organizing the Bench Phase 2

Who knows how many more phases there will be? With each sort through, I find more ways to sub-categorize these items. The primary sorting process is finished, but now I begin the sub-cats. To begin this process, I categorized into these main, um, categories . . . 

Citrus

Woody

Spicy

Anisic

Rosey

Rustic

Balsams/Ambers

Florals

Resinous

Animalic

Gourmand/Fruity

Now the work begins to sort them into sub-cats, such as these:

Whole Materials

Diluted Materials

Tinctures/Infusions

Extracts

Menstruum

But before I start all of that, I wanted to share some surprising and not so surprising discoveries. Surprising discovery number one was that I have a LOT of labdanum/cistus. Enough to make significant amounts of amber-based perfumes once a month for the next five years. Surprising discovery number two was that I don't have nearly as much patchouli as I expected. This just means that I'm hoarding labdanum for those future amber projects, and I'm using up patchouli just as quickly as I purchase it. Surprising discovery number three is that there are many more floral and rose materials in the organ than anticipated. Number four, I really need to sub-categorize the heck out of the 'Rustic' category because, wow, that is taking up the most space. The category covers a lot of unrelated materials. 

I haven't done an "official" purge and cleanse of the studio in, well, ever, really. I tend to hang onto empty bottles of truly exquisite materials just to occasionally catch whiffs of what was. For example, the last few drops of a gorgeously aged 1945 Santalum album from India were used up for the most recent amber perfume project, but I cannot bring myself to toss the bottle. I may add a few mls of alcohol to the bottle and set it aside for olfactory training or, more likely, to open and enjoy something rare and beautiful and never to be seen again. There is sadness in seeing these treasures used up, but there is also sadness in holding onto them and not sharing them. It reminds me of an incense 'listening' session with perfumery friends some years ago where we sat around a table and gently held the censor of ash and coal and mica with the tiniest bit of agarwood sitting atop it; the splendid and delicious scent of the deepest, most intoxicating, creamy-sweet sandalwood scent wafted from that wee chip of agarwood. After making the first round of the table, the scent changed and became itself, deeply fungal and warm and dark, but the memory of its opening -- man, that one really sticks. And it is an experience I am likely never to have again, so I am grateful to have done so. This is how I feel about the treasures -- they're only treasures IF they are used and experienced. 

A lot of things, this time around, were tossed out. Mostly dried-up dilutions and formerly hoarded empty bottles. It took eight days to get through this process as I found myself becoming queasy and dizzy, even with a mask on, drunk from the scent of the 91% isopropyl alcohol I used to wash the bottles. I worked for maybe an hour or two per day washing bottles as quickly as I could, probably with a lot of breath-holding, which comes with its own set of issues. When that was finally done, I sorted. That was the fun part. I finally got to see what I have, and I have some nice stuff, but I have to admit that a lot of it is newer acquisitions from newly discovered vendors who are really rocking their gigs. When White Lotus Aromatics closed down, my heart skipped as I thought, "Who is going to fill this space now?" Surprisingly, a lot of folks are doing it! 

Olfaction training has been in the news of late. This is something that I've been working on, though a bit less formally (the fun and amazing Conscious Smelling Activities the students groan about), from the inception of the Academy -- our students are put through their paces with this type of work. Still, more recently, we've added so much more to this topic, especially now that there seems to be new interest in the subject. When I initially started to dig deeply into the topic last year, I discovered that part of the training is based on work done in the early 1900s, which I can't decide is a good or bad, outdated thing. At any rate, offering more than a cursory nod toward physiology and psychology of olfaction training is the work at hand at the Academy these days, as well as updating, upgrading, and adding advanced coursework. There are other matters in the name of improvement going on with the Academy, for which I must remain somewhat cryptic about at this point. Goals in the works sort of things. We don't want to put the cart before the horse here. 

Still a sloppy mess. At least I know where everything is now.