The Grimoire of Aromatic Wonders

Finally made significant headway in the studio. It's tidied up and useable again, all of the bottles and notes and dirty lab glass are cleaned up and put away, there is space to walk again after breaking down a dozen boxes. Created a new shipping supplies' box as the old one was overflowing and ridiculous to use. No matter how carefully I'd balance it, something would always slip out and hit the floor, or, if it was the heavy shipping tape dispenser, it would hit my foot. Now I have a legit bin to put it all into, organized, and everything in its place. I also found two boxes of resins and waxes that I'd forgotten about. It was like Christmas morning! Took a while to get them all sorted and put away, but I found a lot of stuff that I had acquired over the holidays that were completely forgotten. Like a bit of frangipani floral wax and some gorgeous green Hojari sacra, and musk root absolute. 

And after years of relying upon my less-than-stellar memory, I've begun writing down the ideas in a notebook dedicated to just ideas -- which is funny because I teach my students to have a notebook for their ideas, and I rarely (never) follow my own damn advice! Thus far, there on the first page of the Grimoire of Aromatic Wonders, is another Fougere-type incense, a cocoa basil perfume, an incense dedicated to Medusa, an Ebers Kyphi, an Edfu Kyphi, and The Ram. I'll just bet that if I flip through my formulation books I'll find more ideas scribbled in the margins for things I never made. I will add them to the notebook. The notebook should be a constant source of inspiration, especially when the ideas are not coming as quickly as you would like them to. You can peruse the ideas that have not been crossed out (created) and begin work on those. Usually, when you start working on a particular piece, more ideas flow. A material will spark a thought, and the idea will begin to grow until it is a fully-realized incense or perfume or something. Oftentimes, it will feel as if your thoughts and your hands are guided by some outside source, the spirits of the materials, or the tiny, shining seed of the heart of something that wants to exist. Don't let anyone tell you that there isn't magic in this work.