A Perfumer's life can get so busy - with so much great stuff going on!

A perfumer can sometimes dream - or daydream - of little dots/drops - and the dance of the aromatic molecules. Sometimes, if you're lucky, those drops coalesce into a perfume - a cornucopia of rewards of scent, time and place. They can be imagined as people moving together like the fractal cornucopia, all a different color with a unique beauty, all synchronized to help form a beautiful image.

First off - to catch up: I haven't blogged for a few weeks because I've been so busy and caught up in great things. First, I got the perfect boxes and packaging for my perfumes. Finally. It's only been two years, lol. The company will make custom boxes for me in the future, but the regular ones are wonderful in the time being. I'll launch them in the next day or two. One of my webmasters (I have two!) turned out to be a graphic artist of sorts and got my labels fixed. Yay!

Then the new Guild site launched last Friday 8.8.08, and the feedback is fantastic! The Guild members are all fired up (more about that, below) and the response from them and the general public is very lovely to receive. Don't miss the Galleries - you can jump on from the Member's List page or here - because I think eventually the entire Members List will be in the form of galleries.

I also offered an apology to someone who was "done wrong" by the plotting of someone else, unearthed after a year. Hopefully, the recipient will know the apology was from the heart and be able to move beyond the incident. I will always own up to a mistake, it's in my nature, and this was very, very important. I will also keep my eyes wide open in the future to avoid such Machiavellian shenanigans! I felt very humble and also very good reaching out to this person, so I hope it all works out well in the end.

I have been remiss in getting out updates on my online natural perfumery course, and/or advertising it. I'll post more about it in the next week - very exciting because we'll have the first mother/daughter team enrolled for the Fall 2008 course! I think that's it's enchanting that they'll be learning together.

So, on Monday I thought I'd perhaps have a breather or two - but oh, no, I went and casually posted in the private Yahoo group for the Guild members that several had suggested Guild logos on hats and t-shirts. I've looked into having scent strip holders made, but I don't like any of the stuff I've sourced. Well, the email got an avalanche of posts in the Guild group, which is normally pretty quiet. I think there were 90 posts in three days. Here's what I cross-posted to them and the big natural perfumery group I host on Yahoo (almost 1600 members in this very, very active group!)

Well, the private Yahoo group for Guild members has exploded with
chatter - did they catch the talk virus from here?  ;-)  I think it's just
something bubbling under the surface of connections, critical mass in
ideas and just a general good feeling about what's going on in our
world. (Maybe the launch of the new Guild website helped
http://naturalperfumers.com/perfumers.htm and the other galleries are
particularly fetching, IMO)

Anyway, I casually mentioned the other day that several folks had asked
me about Guild merchandise - cups, hats, t-shirts, etc. Whoa! A torrent
of ideas, opinions (what types of shirts for men and women, who wants
baseball caps, who hates them, etc.) came forth. I'm trying to sort
through it all and set up an online shop. Several Guild members
generously stepped up to volunteer to help me since I wrote (insert
plaintive wail here,lol) "So when do I find time to clone myself to do
all this? ;-)"

So it looks like Guild Goodies (I'm thinking of calling the shop that)
will launch this Fall - After I finish the new packaging for my
perfumes, finish four perfumes, finalize all the details for the Fall
2008 online perfumer course I teach, etc. I put Beth off in the filming
project until late Fall, and now I have to figure how to juggle all this!

Claire found a great French fabrication company for ceramic and other
fine art goodies. Looks like the Guild is taking off due to the interest
and excitement of the members, and I'll play catchup asap - just
laughing because I thought a hat or t-shirt would satisfy them. Oh,
here's one wish list:

ties, scarves, hats w/ different styles ~even baseball
styles~ you never know (I'd love one!) mugs, stamps, address labels, tees of a
variety of styles, and with the upcoming months sweatshirts. I'll add notepads. Scent strip holders a given.

Oh, Adam had specs on the ties - silk, of course, a certain width, and others demanded tunic-length t-shirts. Mercy.  ;-)  I think he wanted fedoras, the women pushing for big brimmed sun-protection hats.

I think there's more, but with 90 posts in a few days, I need to reread some of the suggestions. Whew!
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I'm just in awe of how the community has grown. We've had some brickbats tossed at us, some folks have tried to steal our membership, others predicted that NP was just a fad. They are so wrong - we're growing and more dynamic with each passing day. Now, where's that cloning laboratory? ;-)