This journey of moving both the perfumery and our household has been epic! During the entire process I've been listening to a a book series proposed by my daughter Eve. Today, as I was driving from our little woodland house to my moms home in Encino, I realized that most of our personal experiences mimic iconic stories of heros/heroines. We all have characters in our lives that hurtle fire balls at us and a wizard/wizardess or two who come to help us as we attempt to refine ourselves into the wizard/wizardess. Personally I like the image of Galadirel as the powerful force that battles the dark forces with me, but Serafina Pekkala is pretty cool too. I'm sure there are others I could conjure given some extra time. Who do you envision coming to help you or yourself becoming? I really need to go check out the new Wonder Woman movie.
Ah, speaking of fantasy, Greg is currently at Comic Con in San Diego, find him in Artist Alley at table EE-24. He took the Divine Alchemy banner with him along with lots of original art that he has been threatening to burn in a bonfire in New Mexico. If you have always wanted to own one of his vintage original pieces, get it now before the burn!
Speaking of characters, the garage sale was good but a really odd experience due to some of the very eccentric personality traits that descended at the event on Saturday. Ben mentioned that "garage sale people are a different breed", yea, no kidding! Thing is, I go to garage and estate sales hunting for vintage treasures, and I am definitely not part of that breed. However in the end we were able to get rid of things make some bucks to help this journey we are on and also meet lots of my moms neighbors.
Next on the task list is donating items for a tax deduction and/or listing others on venues such as Craigslist. I began the process of listing items with my four original, vintage Emeco chairs. After taking the photos, writing the listing and putting it up I'm feeling sorta done with selling furniture and other stuff online. I prefer to donate the stuff and move onto teaching about the plants and pure fume. If your interested in the Emeco chairs, keep reading, if not I'll catch ya later with another update soon, probably with dates on live, local classes.
The Emeco chairs are light and extremely cool, Greg and I decided to sell them since we are planning on going for a more classical type style in Santa Fe. While typing out the description I learned quite a bit more about the chairs and the company that have made me fall in love with them again!
The legend of these simple, sturdy, humble chairs begins with its founder Wilton Carlyle Dinges and the creation of the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company (EMECO), still located in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
Originally created in 1944 for US Navy submarines and warships to withstand harsh conditions such as salt water & air as well as an occasional torpedo blast. The story goes that Dinges tested the strength of the chair by tossing them out of a sixth-story window! By using salvaged aluminum, which was plentiful in 1944, Emeco perfected a 77-step proprietary process which yields aluminum three times stronger than steel resulting in a chair so durable that it has an estimated life span of 150 years.
The chair has survived seven decades of the military’s need and now is a fixture in restaurants, hotels, offices and film. Emeco’s all-aluminum chairs and stools come with a lifetime guarantee and tested to withstand 1,700 pounds of weight. Besides the aluminum is completely recyclable.
Early Monday morning Eve and I headed over the hill to Santa Monica for a "Preferred Customer Closing Sale" at the shop Paris 1900. We had been tipped about the closing of the store by Eve's grandmother Marilyn, who had met the owner Susan Lieberman through the Eames office in the 1950's.
Paris 1900 is deemed a home of "romantic refinery" with vintage and era inspired pieces that cater to brides, collectors and romantics. Beautiful, antique lace dresses share a space with a plethora of trims, hats, jewelry, table linens and many odds and ends including early Vogue magazines.
My intention in going to the sale was to find items for the new space, in particular furniture that could be used in the lab or showroom area of the perfumery.
Susan has decided to close Paris 1900 and focus on her secondary shop next store titled jAdis. From now through June 17th the contents of the shop and fixtures, as well as her 40 year personal collection of vintage treasures are on sale for the first time. These include laces, ribbons, millinery trims, buttons, fabrics, linens, lace trimmed hankies, hats and hat boxes, vintage clothing and jewelry, among others. She will also be parting with her rare collection of period mannequins, paintings, showcases, and other display items.
While there I learned that Susan met her late husband Park Meeker while working as a receptionist at the Eames office. Park was one of those multi talented individuals, like John Neuhart, who worked with Charles Eames in a variety of departments. His passion for collecting combined with his skill set as an engineer and carpenter resulted in the shop jAdis next to Paris1900.
Eve and I had a personal tour of the glorious prop-shop meets cabinet of curiosity named jAdis. The museum-like space is an absolute wonder filled with props used in films, early optics, photographica, electrical and scientific advancements, aviation and planetary models, steampunk widgets, gears as well as lab equipment that has me drooling. Here's a short vimeo film of Parke before he passed to the other side.
Paris 1900 photographs by Roxana, Jadis shop image from their website.
Since signing the lease on the new space last week I've been a little obsessed with getting the space ready. Today I was given the key, which made everything seem so much more real. I've been getting quotes from electricians for providing power to the candelabras as well as going over how best to design the space from lighting, to the functionality of the space and what is needed for displays, etc.
Auspiciously as I was driving up Topanga on my way home I passed by Joseph Wahl Arts and saw a "sale" sign outside his shop as well as some lovely pieces of vintage-looking white furniture that would be perfect for the space. Joseph is downsizing his space, thus the sale. I bought one piece and will most likely commission him do make a table or two. Tomorrow I'm heading over to his work space to see what he might have already made and talk about what I need.
I'll post photos of the space and the renovation as things progress, in the meantime, check out my pin board titled "Perfumery Space Inspiration" to see what my vision is for the site.
The key photo was taken by me today on a pile of vintage books I bought at the vintage market on Sunday. Yes, that's the actual key to my new space! The dress form photo was taken from the Adored Vintage.
Thursday was Greg's birthday. Since he is so busy finishing up his retrospective book and working on illustrating a Comic and a Tarot deck, spending the time celebrating was not on his agenda. Thus instead he conceded to a birthday lunch somewhat locally.
The delicious uber-healthy lunch was followed by a bit of spontaneity. It all began with observing that the structure that the restaurant was in would be a great location for a perfume studio, thus we began exploring which led us to a gelato store which led to a bit of antiquing.
A short, local lunch turned into a fun adventure that I am yearning for more of, I think I have a case of Spring fever.
Today I poured Lyra solid into an oval compact for a customer in South Africa which transported me into a "pink" mood. It also occurred to me that Lyra is a perfect in between season perfume, due to the balance of warm amber with sweet floral and licorice.
The Etsy featured seller this weekend has been the shop Vera Vague, is comprised of the dynamic duo Vera & Victor Vague, aka Anastasia and Eric, in Kalamazoo. Their focus is on the Victorian, Edwardian and Art Deco period items. I've been a long time fan of their shop and photos...mostly the Victorian boots or these Edwardian black leather "Witch" shoes from 1910.
As I was checking out the feature when all of a sudden I noticed that Anastasia was wearing our Victorian inspired perfume locket in the photo of them! I know its ours because about a month ago Eric bought it filled with Vespertina, obviously for Anastasia, what a perfect fragrance for her.
Besides the fabulous items they offer you gotta love their sense of style!
All photos except the Victorian inspired perfume locket belong the VeraVague.
Here's a few beauties I found on Etsy weaved in with some of my pieces. The first collection is for the romantic, lover of shabby chic and vintage style.
I chose Vespertina liquid for this vamp who likes rose and jasmine in her perfume with a bit of mystery. The melding of floral, incense and botanical musk seemed right up her alley.
The invention of photography began with the discovery that a mixture of silver and chalk darkens when exposed to light. Eventually this resulted in the photographic process termed daguerréotype.
In between formulating and making perfumes, packaging orders, and marketing I continue to photograph my work. Constantly searching for the perfect photo to capture the essence of the aromatic plant elixirs I create.
The antique postcards have been a God-send and continue to find their way into the photos as valuable backgrounds. I am enamored with the beautiful script of each of the cards, I'd like to find a typographic font that looks like this.
Of the perfume imagery the first of Q natural perfume, a solid handmade unguent using my own infusion of oak leaves. The word unguent stems from the Latin unguere meaning to anoint. Historically unguents go back to ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire referring to a semi solid paste, in this case a cream perfume.
The second photo is of three 1 gram vials of pure perfume, this is a new set requested by a customer and seems an excellent idea. Since Mothers Day is coming up and the Natural Perfume Locket is such a nice gift for mom, I took some new photos of the locket.
The fourth photo below, is of liquid Chaparral® with a sprig of sage from my native garden. Which reminds me, I'm going to go out there and count how many different types of sage I have in the garden.
Images: L’Atelier de l'artiste by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) Perfume photos by moi, Roxana Villa.
I finally nabbed an Etsy Treasury West last night. I decided to title and curate this one with the theme of the day Bountiful. After both the wonder filled shop on Abbot Kinney and the blog post just prior to this one. The picks are inspired by my day in Venice with my daughter Eve.
The OH LA LA Original Vintage Frames up top by Timeless N Chic
Here is how the final piece looks, go over and have a look, click, leave a comment and support the handmade! This treasury will be live until Sunday, September 6th at 7:30am.
One of the things I adore doing when I have a few extra moments of cyber space time is creating an Etsy treasury. It's a sort of art therapy thing. I begin by looking for images in my accumulated favorites sections. If I see a theme then I go from there. Sometimes I begin one way and head in another. At other times, like this one, I began with a title and build from there. My title
{ h a p p y }
was somewhat generic and based on the image of a Happy Birthday banner. This time I began with a few images and then plundered another sellers favorites for some really lovely "vintage" type imagery, my fav.
Here's a shot of the finished treasury, this one didn't make it to the front page, regrettably.
As you can see the opening image for this journal post, Lil Vintage Boots, was not in this weeks treasury. I put it in because they worked will with the vintage feel and I do adore them so. If you happen to be a size six, I suggest heading over to the shop called Sophistikate to nab them.
