There we are again: I got 5 fresh hyacinths on Saturday and enjoy their developing bloom and their fragrance. Thus, the picture of today is a quick scan of one of them, some dust removed with photoshop, but otherwise pretty “natural” and not photoshop enhanced.

I also sniffing a hyacinth sketch I made about  two weeks ago. I talked about this sketch, consisting of 20 or so ingredients here. I think I like it and will dilute now, that it has matured for two weeks. That’s about all I will do on experimental level today. I need to make more stock of a variety of samples, and box perfumes, and will do so later today, after I was successful in convincing myself to ride the bike. It is pretty chilly and the idea of getting onto the bike riding down the hill towards tauerville is not really inviting.

Furthermore, I will need to continue playing PR and come up with some text, after I played travel agency over the weekend, booking flights and hotels and trains for March and April and May. To be frank: March is going to be a  touch too much, and you will see Andy hopping  from Munich early March to Rome to New York to Paris and to Milano and then in early April to Paris again. You can expect more and all details on my travel schedules and the why soon.

Welcome to a new week! Let’s see where we will be at the end of the coming days. I got another bunch of hyacinths, all pink, and smelling rather differently compared to the blue ones I got two weeks ago. They are much less metallic but rather powdery sweet, with a spicy undertone and only little green tonalities. Actually, very little green here. And their scent changes. I got them on Saturday, all buds still closed. They did not smell at all. Almost. Now they are in full bloom and the scent has changed from yesterday’s gourmand like sweetness to a more stingy, a bit more belligerent variant.

No wonder, I fooled around a bit yesterday, circling the flowers so to say, squeezing in a moment with these flowers and a few fragrant raw materials, such as phenylpropanol, lilial, phenylpropanal and roses et al. Phenylpropanal is interesting as you find it naturally in hyacinth, lilac, and cinnamon bark. It smells fresh, green, metallic, aggressive and is super potent. I think I will use about 0.1% in the diluted fragrance. Much more you do not want to put in there, I think. Well, I guess it is a question of how much of metallic green you like.

And somewhere in between, I circled the flowers with my i-pad, sketching one little flower using the drawing app, observing its symmetry, and how it is broken, the colors, the shapes.

Thus, yesterday was very busy, in all possible ways, and it saw us getting more air du désert marocain ready for bottling today. But I managed to do the weekly jogging including some hard core brand and numbers thinking, in preparation for this week’s meetings. There, at the meetings, we will try to come up with a master plan for the next 1-2 years. I need to come up with some core decisions like how many scents more do I want. And when. And in what kind of bottles. And for what price. For whom. All very good questions. Right now, I worry about the number of scents that I have not published. I have a couple of colognes ready, two three other fragrances sit in Excel, and I simply have not decided what to do with them. If I was a painter it would be simple: Just hang the paintings up, in a gallery, or another public place and share them. Scents are different. A whole factory has to be turned on in order to share a new creation. And once it is out, there is an expectation that it will always smell the same, look the same, cost the same and be available all the time.

And while everyone seems to be interested in new fragrances, asking for more, and more new scents, everybody seems to complain about too many fragrances appearing and too little time to follow what’s new. Not easy, right?

These, and other questions such as profitability, and volumes and work load will be on the table tomorrow.

Ultimately, the goal is to continue building an environment that allows  being creative without having to compromise too much.

Today’s picture: Another shot taken yesterday, of the hyacinth flowers. Their waxy flowers are almost translucent in bright sunlight.

I am back from New York since Wednesday where the shopping related credit card damage got not into substantial area. I guess I was just too busy meeting people and talking. Imagine: I did not even buy jeans… A few books on illustrations and packaging are on the shopping list and decorate the coffee table now. I am looking forward to getting inspired and learning how other illustrators work.

One of the reasons to get to NY: I visited MIN, the niche perfumery in the middle of New York and loved it so much! Thus, you will soon see me there again, presenting Tauer flacons and juices.

Since I am back  I am rather busy getting things done. I just finished an interview this instance and will soon head down to the factory, bottling Orange Star, the last 100 bottles of the last batch. I am still in a waiting position for the new batch. Besides Orange Star that should go into production in this month, I have other sourcing issues. Zeta is on the waiting list and I am down to 50 bottles. And no stock. Getting raw materials has become an issue again these days.

Thus, all back to normal. Perfumery business is also very much a logistics business. A rather tough logistics business. I have to work on that over the weekend. It will be rather long and busy.

Optimistic as I am , I am looking forward to actually mixing and getting some production done  in January and February, in order to get ready for spring 2012. NY will hopefully soon see me again. I plan to go there again in March. I guess I will buy jeans then. On another happy travel note: I just booked my Paris train ticket. But Paris is worth another post.

Today’s picture shows you some perspective: Metro in New York.

Fragrant greetings from Zurich, where we are approaching mid January and where it is still grey but does not really feel like winter. Did you know: Switzerland has seen 2011 the warmest year since 150 year. And nevertheless, I am longing for warmth and light that is razor edge sharp. Thus, yep… I am on my favorite flight booking sites these days again, dreaming of far away places, and as I need to combine the desirable with the useful, looking into flights to LA for spring. Like every year around this time. I guess we all have these desires to get out of where we are. Even if -by objective standards- there where we are is wonderful.

Thus, I am looking in to LA for March. Or so.  Independent of that, I will be traveling during the upcoming (long) weekend, and will probably not post. For that I put a some stuff onto my ipad. I have I told you that I cannot live without it anymore? This flat little thing turned into a big enabler for me, supporting me in answering mails everywhere and in basically every position, painting pictures and writing up ideas; thus I will work on files and pictures and will carry on some fragrant trials and sketches with me while traveling.

Exploring trials means: Looking at the formula and the scent at the same time and try to make sure what is working, what notes are present, what notes are completely annihilated and what notes add to a fragrance’s beauty. Or rather: What they add to a sketch. Some of the trials are pretty advanced. I worked on them for months now. Some are rather new and more a skeleton than a fragrance. Traveling comes usually with time. Time due to waiting for machines transporting human bodies, time in hotel rooms without the distractions and obligations of home and office.

While I am writing this post, the W.-factor tries to deal with the Italian authorities or rather Italian atrocities, and insurances and police. The accident (where somebody crashed into us, on the highway, a simple and clear case, not the other way round) is still keeping us busy. Amazing.

But to be frank: I do not really care too much about Italian bureaucracy. I am looking forward to traveling somewhere else.

If you looking for the day 8 advent calendar giveaway: It is here on the blog of Brian Pera. Click here to get there. This post is NOT the day 8 of the advent calendar.

This is a serious post on a few things developing in front of my nose or eyes that I feel like sharing today. We have been busy stocking up. Air, Le Maroc, Carillon, you name it. And next will be -after a short trip abroad next week- soaps for friends and family. The Mandarines ambrées soaps need to be poured and packed like every year as little gift together with a holidays card.

I finally came up with this year’s holidays card. I am sort of tired already and have seen an overdose of candles, fir twigs, deers, stars, and more. Thus, I will do the holiday cards totally different this year. You see to the left an all white Origami prototype. Later, I will used different paper, of course.  I was told it is a Pochibukuro, and is actually used to give money to children in small decorated envelopes. I will put inside a simple card saying “Merry holidays and a happy 2012″. Thus, the coming days will see us folding paper.I am looking forward to it.

On Saturday, we will have the Scent Apero get together in Zurich and I need to dilute the few essential oils that I will show, such as Marjoram and Dill etc. and label the bottles and get some things organized there. I am so much looking forward to this event. It is casual, fragrant and it is about saying thank you. And then, next week, I will be for 2.5 days in Paris. We will have to see how this advent calendar of ours will do doing these days.

Talking about it, if you are still here reading: It is about time you get there, to day 8 of the advent calendar 2011, and leave your comment there. Not here. And watch that short silent movie by Brian Pera. I love it.

I will present a few thoughts on roses on Thursday evening, organized by Les Senteurs. Thus, I will travel to London. Yesterday, my friendly airline informed me that November 30 the UK border agency folks are on  strike and that the airlines flies but they cannot really tell about the immigration procedures. It may be hours or half a day.  They were friendly enough to allow free re-booking. That’s what I did and thanks to the UK strike I get an extra day off in London. And it will be sunny. I will pack my jogging stuff, and caress my Harrods card.

Not that I would not have other things on my to do list for tomorrow. It is a busy time of the year. But then: We need to take things the way they come.

OK. Time to pack. See you’ll later.

Today’s post is short and an invitation to perfume lovers in the Zurich area: If you are in the area and have time you are cordially invited to this year’s “Duftapero”.

Like every year since 7 years, Pascal, the shop owner of the book shop Medieval art&vie in Zurich (the  place where you find my scents exclusively in Switzerland), and me invite perfume loving friends to a get together. There, in the Felseneggkeller, Spiegelgasse 18, on December 10, between 5 and 7 pm we will sniff, drink a glass of sparkling wine and enjoy a moment of peace. And like every year, we invited an actor to read a fragrant story.

This year’s scent topic: the scent of herbs. I will present herbs essential oils such as Marjoram, Dill, Fennel, Clary sage and a few more.

And I think I will show how a herb, like Marjoram, can find its way into an all natural eau fraiche that I compose for this occasion.

And off I hop now. Bottles are waiting for me and Le Maroc pour elle.

While hiking in Joshua Tree a while ago  I picked up a rusty beer crown, sitting somewhere on the ground in the desert and I put it into my backpack. I figured it will remind me one day in this hike. It did.

After I passed the security checks in Chicago, getting semi naked and trying to assemble everything that was mine after the x-ray scan, I found it again and remembered Joshua Tree. In the mean time it has become an object with a history. Sitting in this backpack of mine, it has seen Zurich, Los Angeles, passed by Philadelphia, Chicago, will soon see London and Oldenburg. Being an inanimate object, it nevertheless is charged, with pictures and emotions.

I guess we all do. Pick things up and start carrying them with us like Labradors. By picking them up, we bond to objects. And then we carry them with us. I try to carry as little as possible, but nevertheless end up picking objects on a daily basis. Like my newest gadgets, or bottles, or pieces of paper with print that I have a hard time throwing away. From time to time I try to get rid of a lot of them. I try to give myself free space again. I try to get rid of whatever holds me in time and space, in order to breath freely and see where I need to go next.

When it comes to brands and businesses, it is quite comparable. You add things to your brand. Scented papers, bottles, fragrances, labels, designs, text. Next year, it will be two years of the new look in tauerville.  Next year will be time to seriously look into things.

And, next year, I will also need to decide what I am going to do with a few scents such as the Cologne du Maghreb. We will offer this cologne for some time at indiescents.com in the old tauer flacon, with the white box and ribbons around it, (launch November 29),… more on this developing story soon. I am still very undecided whether I should pick up another object or not.

Let me start here with a little haiku I am up the other day.

**November**

-A last yellow leave

Gliding through November light-

Winter is so near.-

The idea for the haiku came to me when I saw a yellow leave falling from a black branch of a tree in late afternoon. The picture of today shows you another leave that I picked in the woods after jogging. This autumn was spectacular.

Indeed, winter is approaching. With it come cold days, dark days and a pathologic longing for spring. I can already hear you; how nice it is to cuddle in the evening, drink tea and enjoy the season. To be frank: I rarely enjoy winter, except for a few moments of sun over snow and in the Alps. And it definitely lasts too long around here. I mean, common, it won’t be before end March that we can begin considering sitting for longer than 5 minutes outside on the balcony.  But, I guess there is no reason complaining: Change things or get used to them.

After a few days abroad, I am basically getting ready for the last few trips this year: Oldenburg, in Germany, where I will talk on artisanal and indie perfumery at the Duftcontor, and London, November 30, where I will talk about roses. And then there are the upcoming activities in December such as the advent calendar and the annual scent apero in Zurich.

Thus, I am looking in to 6 more interesting weeks this year and then, then I am ready for 2012. And spring.

When looking seriously into 2012, I am not really worried, but developed some sort of fatalism. The innocent observer that I am, totally untrained when it comes to economics and monetary policies, I cannot but see very clearly that we are heading for inflation. Big times. I mean: really BIG. Inflation is the last resort to get rid of debts and get the money from there where it (still) is: folks. When jogging yesterday, looking into 2012 and discussing what might be next in tauerville, where to invest with what and what scents to launch and not and so on, when discussing all these issues we wondered whether it might not be THE time now to run into depth. I mean really BIG depth. And maybe get property and farmland somewhere, like in a place where the sun shines and where it is warm. When the inflation hits we would at least have food and a nice tan. On a serious note: I unfortunately know some people these days who actually seriously consider exactly that: Getting farmland.

As we cannot change things anyhow, I guess we just wait until the first bank is run over and take things from there, then.

Besides these Armageddon thoughts, the jog was actually nice and thoughts meandered from flacons to patchouli and colognes and back. Thus, if you like colognes, the natural way, maybe you want to mark in your calendars the following: November 30 and indiescents.com.

And now we move on, looking into a sky full of yellow leaves. So pretty.

Today’s picture shows you where I will be in 20 minutes: the room where I pour and label and pack all that goes of to world from tauerville. Towards the window, you see a row of 200 air du désert marocain, filled, waiting to be polished and labeled. Towards the camera is the dispenser that will soon start dispensing Lonestar Memories, my smoky leather fragrance that brings back memories of cowboys, archetypal memories.

It will be a very busy day there and as soon as I have done the pouring and labeling, I need to get some customs and shipment papers done and need to work on those shipments for tomorrow. Uff. And you know what? I got so many large retailer orders these days that I will need to work on stock next week. And somewhen in between, I have a nice journalist visiting me there, too. They are doing a perfume X-mas feature and we figured: Let’s give the readers the real thing. Tell them what handmade really means.

Later, when things calm down and the sun has gone, I will see that I can work on a little soapy idea. To balance, to feel creative again and not just like the man handling boxes and bottles.

Greetings from the factory.