Recipe of the Day: Scented Beads #2

"A rose is a rose is a rose." - Gertrude Stein

The word Rosary comes from the latin "rosarium", meaning rose garden. The first rosary originated in India as a counting devise, the repetition action is believed to achieve a heightened state, much like contemplation of a mandala. The Hindu people refer to them as a neck mala. Each bead represents a mantra or prayer, with each use, the neck mala is imbued with the vibration of divine worship.

ROSE BEADS #1 simple
(adapted from Sally Pointer)

- Grind your barks, herbs, gums and resins to a powder
- Bind with tragacanth dissolved in rosewater
- Mix to a playdough like consistency and model into beads.

ROSE BEADS #2

Ingredients:
Fresh rose petals and water
Pure essential oil of Rose or Rose Geranium

Materials:
Cast iron pot
Thread and Needle

Directions:

Place the fresh rose petals in the cast iron pot, add water to cover and cook over low heat for one hour. Allow to cool. Repeat the process, once a day for three consecutive days. Dip your fingers into rose essential oil, or a rosy aroma like rose geranium essential oil, and grab some of the cooked rose petal mixture to form beads. Pierce the bead with a threaded needle, continue until the entire rose petal mixture has been utilized. Allow to dry, rotating beads to prevent sticking.

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds 'round my neck." - Emma Goldman

ROSE SCENTED TABLET (adapted)

Take a pound of roses without the flower heads, and seven ounces of ground benzoin. Put the roses to soak in musk water for a night. Remove these roses afterwards and thoroughly squeeze out the water, and grind them with the benzoin. And when grinding, put with it a quarter of amber and veggie musk [see below]. After [they are] ground, make your tablets and put each one between two rose leaves, and dry them away from the sun."

Rose Scented Tablet text from http://cervantesvirtual.com/; translation by Dana Huffman.

“Their lips were four red roses on a stalk.” - Shakespeare

VEGGIE MUSK (adapted from Mock Musk by Sally Pointer)

Ingredients

3 parts Ambrette Musk Seed
1 part Oakmoss
Labdanum resin or essential oil

Grind the Musk Seed and Oakmoss to a powder.
Mix in enough Labdanum resin or essential oil to make a crumbly mixture.

"A single rose can be my garden...a single friend, my world" - Leo Buscaglia.

Suppliers:
Scents of the Earth
Eden Botanicals

Sally Pointer
Early Perfume Yahoo Group
Books on to make Prayer Beads

A Red, Red Rose

"O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June; O my Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly pla'd in tune.-"
~ A snippet from "A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns

As with just about every holiday the roots of Valentines day go very deep into the earth where you find a pagan festival at the core. It began with Lupercalia, an ancient Roman fertility celebration, in honor of the goddess Juno. This two day long feast included Roman ladies writing "billets" and placing them in large urns to be chosen by a man. He then would pursue the author of his note.

Our modern interpretation of this holiday might include handwritten love notes, fresh bulbs of tulips and daffodils or a botanically scented bath followed by a foot massage. These are all simple, yet, heart warming deeds apropos for this sweet day devoted to love.

The most widely used aromatic associated with love is the heart/base note of Rose. She comes to the botanical perfumer in many guises: Bulgarian, Turkish, Indian or French, Attar of Roses, Rose de Mai, Rose Maroc or Musk Rose or damascena, centifolia or alba. When in the form of a concrete the essence is solid, as an absolute it is thick, where as the distilled essential oil is thin when at room temperature. The essence of the Queen of the Flowers can be a deep red or a pale light yellow in color.

If you exchange tokens of affection with a beloved today, consider creating a botanically scented item such as a solid perfume, body oil, salt scrub or some chocolate lip balm!

Here are some links from my blog with recipes:

• Lip Balm
• Solid Perfume
• Infusion
  
• Rose Petal Beads

Find more by typing Recipe of the Day into the search box located in the top left corner of the blog. A red colored tincture or infusion can be made by utilizing alkanet root.

My sweet heart proposed to me on a bended knee on Valentines night, after he had prepared a home made dinner. He is my heart throb, my love, lover and beloved. I adore and cherish him!

The botanical print above is from the website www.botanical.com, a terrific resource for more recipes and info on all things botanical.