Funny what kids teach us. I have a 6 year old son who is learning how to draw. He is very intent on learning and sometimes he gets frustrated because he can't draw what he wants, how he wants. I remember being advised by a very good art teacher to "draw what I see and not what I think I see". I relayed that message to my son and set him up with some exercises to help him practice. He knows he has to make mistakes so that he can learn. So, he was drawing Spiderman and he was doing a very good job as he had beside him a print-out of Spiderman that he could look at."Draw what you see", I kept thinking it and then later on I took that idea into my studio. Yesterday evening I was at the rough end of a learning curve and I was feeling frustrated. I needed to look at the art of natural perfumery differently if I was going to move up to the next level. So "Make what I smell, not what I think I smell?" how might that work? I suppose I could take a perfume, smell it and try and copy it...but I didn't want to do that.
Then, I thought again of my son and what he might do if he didn't have a print out of spiderman to copy. He would look for something that might inspire him. He might look for a theme. I would think of a theme, so I thought SPRING THEME. Then I began to build up a picture in my head and on paper of a spring theme. The daffodils, the primroses, the tulips, the frogs laying eggs in the pond, fresh breeze's and cool earthy smells of new growth.
I began to look at my organ then & I chose the following essences: Alpine Cedarwood, Rosemary, and Glabanum, jasmine, ylang ylang and nutmeg, vetivert oakmoss and french tarragon absolute.
The result was startling. I can see the mistakes in probably the same way as my six year old can spot how his version of Spiderman is not identical to the print-out version. I can smell how what I have made is a little rough around the edges, a little heavy where it could be lighter, a little sweet where it could be fresher. But now I have an understanding and a measure of where it is going and what it's going to be like when it gets there.
As a side note: When I was choosing the essences, some were like old friends to me. I knew their make up and how they were going to react with the others. The ones I didn't know so well were the: galbanum, the tarragon absolute and the rosemary. My next step is getting to know these ones better.
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