Finished up reformulating my line with an oil carrier, for a nice gentleman from “beyond the pond.”
Not the actual pond The Atlantic Ocean, is a touch larger…
I’d forgotten how nice an oil carrier can be with a natural perfume When I first started, I used oil all the time, and gradually switched to alcohol. It reminds me of ancient times, when all perfumes were oil based.
Morel Mushroom
I found this little specimen, outside in the yard this morning How cool is that???
Now to eat, or tincture instead? Hmm…choices. Funk can be good.
Leaving in six whole days for vacation! Just a reminder, anything purchased from May 24th – June 1st will not ship until I return.
Pismo Beach, CA
Also getting the chosen fragrances ready for the FRAGments salon.
Hope that all is well for each of you, and thanks for reading
Operation Magnolia for Esscentual Alchemy’s natural botanical perfumes has begun I need a theme song!
Oh how about this one:
They are sweet, like sugar
I have started some enfleurage, and maceration of the magnolia blooms.
Magnolia Blossoms – Hello my pretties!
Oh Maceration Pot…You are so nice
Magnolia Enfleurage – Gimme all your scent molecules!
After a day of doing this, I’m thinking I just will switch to doing only maceration. The blossoms are already falling. I’m not sure if that’s because of the snow, or they just don’t last long. I need more time to properly enfleurage them, and the maceration is going quicker. Which means I’m going to get more recharges of my maceration. Which will give a stronger product in the end, scent wise.
Soooo Double, double, toil, and trouble.
I have to say a crockpot is way easier than a pot over a fire. And I hope the end result isn’t wicked LOL
Magnolia Maceration – Oh you sweet vixen!
Just in case you weren’t aware, the difference between maceration, and enfleurage (exerpt from Septimus Piesse’s book on perfumery):
Maceration._–Of all the processes for procuring the perfumes of flowers, this is the most important to the perfumer, and is the least understood in England; as this operation yields not only the most exquisite essences indirectly, but also nearly all those fine pomades known here as “French pomatums,” so much admired for the strength of fragrance, together with “French oils” equally perfumed. The operation is conducted thus:–For what is called pomade, a certain quantity of purified mutton or deer suet is put into a clean metal or porcelain pan, this being melted by a steam heat; the kind of flowers required for the odor wanted are carefully picked and put into the liquid fat, and allowed to remain from twelve to forty-eight hours; the fat has a particular affinity or attraction for the oil of flowers, and thus, as it were, draws it out of them, and becomes itself, by their aid, highly perfumed; the fat is strained from the spent flowers, and fresh are added four or five times over, till the pomade is of the required strength; these various strengths of pomatums are noted by the French makers as Nos. 6, 12, 18, and 24, the higher numerals indicating the amount of fragrance in them. For perfumed oils the same operation is followed; but, in lieu of suet, fine olive oil or oil of ben, derived from the ben nuts of the Levant, is used, and the same results are obtained. These oils are called “Huile Antique” of such and such a flower.
Enfleurage._–The odors of some flowers are so delicate and volatile, that the heat required in the previously named processes would greatly modify, if not entirely spoil them; this process is, therefore, conducted cold, thus:–Square frames, about three inches deep, with a glass bottom, say two feet wide and three feet long, are procured; over the glass a layer of fat is spread, about half an inch thick, with a kind of plaster knife or spatula; into this the flower buds are stuck, cup downwards, and ranged completely over it, and there left from twelve to seventy-two hours.
Some houses, such as that of Messrs. Pilar and Sons; Pascal Brothers; H. Herman, and a few others, have 3000 such frames at work during the season; as they are filled, they are piled one over the other, the flowers are changed so long as the plants continue to bloom, which now and then exceeds two or three months.
For oils of the same plants, coarse linen cloths are imbued with the finest olive oil or oil of ben, and stretched upon a frame made of iron; on these the flowers are laid and suffered to remain a few days. This operation is repeated several times, after which the cloths are subjected to great pressure, to remove the now perfumed oil.
Last night we had a huge rainstorm. This morning all of the blossoms are falling. Good thing I did what I did. That wraps up Operation Magnolia for 2013. Now I wait until next year. Patience, young grasshopper. Patience.
Francesco Landini – Fortuna ria Ballata for 2 tenor vielles
Fortuna ria is a polyphonic work by the fourteenth-century Italian composer Francesco Landini (c. 1325-1397). It is an example of the Italian dance-form known as the ballata, and is extant in two versions: a two-part incorporating a tenor and cantus, and a three-part adding a countertenor contained in manuscript E-Sco 25. Both the cantus and tenor are set with text. The text to Fortuna ria is thought to be by Landini. It is somewhat unusual in that it has two sets of verses, in the manner of a French virelai rather than an Italian ballata. Fortuna ria is catalogued as No. 21.
(description by David Cashman)
Francesco degli Organi, Francesco il Cieco, or Francesco da Firenze, called by later generations Francesco Landini or Landino (c. 1325 or 1335 – September 2, 1397) was an Italian composer, organist, singer, poet and instrument maker. He was one of the most famous and revered composers of the second half of the 14th century, and by far the most famous composer in Italy.
Details of Landini’s life are sketchy and few facts can be established with certainty, but the general outline has begun to take shape as more research has been done, especially into Florentine records. Most of the original biographical data on him comes from a 1385 book on famous Florentine citizens by chronicler Filippo Villani, who was also born approximately 1325.
Landini was most likely born in Florence, though his great-nephew, humanist Cristoforo Landino, gave his birthplace as Fiesole. His father, Jacopo del Casentino, was a noted painter in the school of Giotto. Blind from childhood (an effect of contracting smallpox), Landini became devoted to music early in life, and mastered many instruments, including the lute, as well as the art of singing, writing poetry, and composition. Villani, in his chronicle, also stated that Landini was an inventor of instruments, including a stringed instrument called the ‘syrena syrenarum’, that combined features of the lute and psaltery, and it is believed to be the ancestor of the bandura.
Despite his young age, Landini was already active in the early 1350s and it is likely that he was very close to Petrarch. According to Villani, Landini was given a crown of laurel by the King of Cyprus, who was in Venice for several periods during the 1360s. Probably Landini spent some time in northern Italy prior to 1370. Evidence in some of his music also points to this: a motet by a certain “Franciscus” is dedicated to Andrea Contarini, who was Doge of Venice from 1368 to 1382; and in addition, his works are well represented in northern Italian sources.
He was employed as organist at the Florentine monastery of Santa Trinità in 1361, and at the church of San Lorenzo from 1365 onward. He was heavily involved in the political and religious controversies of his day, according to Villani, but he seems to have remained in the good graces of the Florentine authorities. Landini knew many of the other Italian composers of the Trecento, including Lorenzo da Firenze, with whom he was associated at Santa Trinità, as well as Andreas da Florentia, who he knew in the 1370s. Around or shortly after 1375, Andreas hired him as a consultant to help build the organ at the Servite house in Florence. Among the surviving records are the receipts for the wine that the two consumed during the three days it had taken to tune the instrument. Landini also helped build the new organ at SS Annunziata in 1379, and in 1387 he was involved in yet another organ-building project, this time at Florence Cathedral.
Numerous contemporary writers attest to his fame, not only as a composer, but as a singer, poet, organist, philosopher, and passionately devoted citizen of Florence, notably Giovanni da Prato, in hist book Paradiso degli Alberti. This book, written in 1389 contains short stories, one of which supposedly was related by Landini himself. His reputation for moving an audience with his music was so powerful that writers noted “the sweetness of his melodies was such that hearts burst from their bosoms.”
He is buried in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. His tombstone, lost until the 19th century and now again displayed in the church, contains a depiction of him with a portative organ.
Landini was the foremost exponent of the Italian Trecento style, sometimes also called the “Italian ars nova”. His output was almost exclusively secular. While there are records that he composed sacred music, none of it has survived. What have survived are eighty-nine ballate for two voices, forty-two ballate for three voices, and another nine which exist in both two and three-voice versions. In addition to the ballate, a smaller number of madrigals have survived. Landini is assumed to have written his own texts for many of his works. His output, preserved most completely in the Squarcialupi Codex, represents almost a quarter of all surviving 14th century Italian music.
Landini is the eponym of the Landini cadence (or Landino sixth), a cadential formula whereby the sixth degree of the scale (the submediant) is inserted between the leading note and its resolution on the tonic. However this cadence neither originated with him, nor is unique to his music; it can be found in much polyphonic music of the period, and well into the 15th century (for example in the songs of Gilles Binchois). Gherardello da Firenze is the earliest composer to use the cadence whose works have survived. Yet Landini used the formula consistently throughout his music, so the eponym—which dates from after the medieval era—is appropriate. (via Wikipedia)
The Atlantic Ocean, is a touch larger…
When I first started, I used oil all the time, and gradually switched to alcohol. It reminds me of ancient times, when all perfumes were oil based.
How cool is that???
