I painted the second last picture published here on the blog, the elephant in orange, with the brush that you see in today’s picture. The brush is pretty rough, pretty large and round. This translates into: Difficult to do details, and nice structures due to the brush’s rough hair. The brush helps to stay “generous” and free when painting.

Here’s a detail.

Thus, the tool is defining the result. When composing fragrances, my tools are pipettes and a balance, and the raw materials. In my composition work, with very few exceptions, I always use the undiluted raw materials. Sometimes, they are a bit hard to weigh in as you only need super tiny little bit of -for instance- a powerful aldehyde. I mention this because there are different ways to compose. Some use pre-diluted raw materials. My fragrance brushes are rough and heavy. To be honest: I do not know whether it makes a difference, but I guess it is part of my style. In an analogy, I might say: It helps staying “generous” and free when painting with scents.

In the brush picture you can see more: a dirty hand.  When painting, you get dirty hands. (and dirty rooms and shirts….) When creating perfumes, I quite often get dirty hands, too. And when packing and making shipments ready and piling up boxes and fiddling with palettes: Dirty hands. Does it matter? You bet. It makes a difference because you get involved, soaked with scent, covered in sweat when lifting boxes, and you go home with a shirt that tells what you have done all day long. I have long working hours, but every day I am feeling blessed: What I do, everything, I do for myself. And my clients. What a difference compared to turning burgers or piling up soup cans or filling excels or … The price to pay for that: Constant uncertainty as the next pay check is not guaranteed. I guess it is a choice.

The brush picture shows you more, in the background, out of focus, but nonetheless very important: Aluminum cans. These are post- production cans, with not much left, fragrance raw materials, that I use for creating and all sorts of experiments. My perfume “organ”, my collection of scents, is spread out everywhere, a complete chaos, but I know pretty much by heart where the bottle of vetiver oil stands. Again: It is a matter of style. I cannot get organized there and I don’t know why, but I feel this is important.