Collaborations

I've recently reached out to another incense artist, an incenseur, if you will, about a student's project that needs some strategizing before creation. It's not important what the project is about, though it is really interesting in a historic way. It is the collaboration with this other incenseur that's got me jumping for joy. I have never sought another incense maker's opinion about incense like this before, mostly because I like experimentation and study and easily slip into 'mad scientist' mode when required, but I know that this particular incenseur has some specific knowledge about the type of incense the student is planning to create, and I sought their help and expertise in honing in on the fine points -- mostly about bioregional materials, the correct materials to capture the essence of the brief, and then later, the ratios of those materials. In just a few short minutes, after some quick exchanges and brainstorming, we came up with a rough formulation -- mind you, this wasn't real-time creation, but both of our experiences with the materials led us to the same or similar conclusions with a few surprises along the way. I wrote a lot of notes to share with the student based on my conversation with this incenseur, and then my collaboration partner went the extra step and volunteered to actually make the incense based on our final composition draft as I didn't have all of the materials at hand to create a rough sketch of the incense myself. I feel reinvigorated to explore incense more than ever before. I also feel more comfortable with collaborations and partnerships like these. They don't all pan out, and I do have some horror stories about perfume collabs that crashed and burned, but when they do work, the magic is palpable and now, all the more so, the magic is absolutely necessary. 

I'm thinking of starting something. An incense art project or . . . something.