Spinning Gears

The soon to be work+teaching+showroom space for Roxana Illuminated Perfume keeps evolving and inching closer to move in time. The electrician came by and hung the chandeliers following Greg and I painting the short wall in the front a pretty purple hue. This week, after doing a thorough cleaning with the help of my daughter Eve, I've been painting furniture and the wrought iron gate that will be put onto the wall of the apothecary area.

The rectangular space has a low T shaped wall that divides it into three sections, my workspace which I call "the apothecary", the teaching space and the front area called "the showroom." The teaching area contains a large chalkboard and eventually a long table with benches and or chairs.

All parts of the perfumery have been put together on a super slim budget, using high amounts of creativity, people power and ingenuity. As mentioned previously the chandeliers were found at a salvage yard and then rewired and fixed up by a local fellow at Whizin. The two little wall scones in the teaching space were given to me by my mother, they once belonged to my grandmother. The furniture and decor has been picked up at local flea and vintage markets, off the street and local Estate sales.

The cabinet you see above is part of a two part unit purchased at the Rose Bowl flea market that was bright white. I took off the two outer door on the top piece so that those two spaces can be utilized for display. Right now I'm thinking its going to hold glass jars filled with the little solid perfume pot samples.

I have been distressing it a bit by adding clear and dark wax to impart more of a vintage look. I have several other pieces here at home that are in the process of being painted, waxed and/or sanded. I am rather enjoying the physicality of the work and painting again.

My iron trellis, also purchased at the Rose Bowl flea market, has had some metal work attached to it so that it could function as a door. I painted the metal with a creamy colored chalk paint and then went over it with clear and dark wax to match the worn iron on the original trellis. 

Since this week will be short due to Comic Con, I'm intending that the week of Monday, August 4th will be an auspicious time to start setting up the work shop. Of course, this depends on the Whizin management folk attaching the iron gate to the purple wall and lots of other parts to the turbine. For example, although I used an environmentally friendly, zero VOC paint there are still some fumes that the constantly running ionizer still has yet to remove. Then there is the matter of needing some counters for the apothecary area, more on that soon.

In the meantime I hope these pictures and words will convey some of the beauty of the space and the excitement as my brand manifests in a three dimensional space!