Dear friends,
I am beyond grateful for all the support that you, our customers, have given me. After I lost my Rain brand, I was terrified of having to reinvent myself - especially in my late fifties. But I have never looked back and could honestly not be happier to be rid of the toxicity and stress. I would choose this over and over again. God has been GOOD to me!
PERFUMERY
SOOOOO EXCITING - my PASSION
So, since I last wrote, I have launched my new Grace Atelier Perfumery. I started studying perfumery in 2012, but breast cancer struck which resulted in the loss of my sense of smell due to chemotherapy. Then came the loss of my body and bath brand Rain. I was broken and could not face trying to paste the pieces back together and reinvent myself, so I shelved the whole perfumery thing.
Last January, I decided to unpack all my bottles that had been tincturing and maturing since 2013, and oh my goodness - the smells brought tears to my eyes. The passion came flooding back and I decided that it was truly worthy of a new pursuit. The flame was rekindled, and with my sense of smell restored, I decided to start creating perfumes again.
The store - Grace Atelier Perfumery, opened 11 months later! We have had a soft opening season for the past 12 weeks, and the official launch event will be on 29 May, the Election Day public holiday. I have had to do it gently and slowly (due to cash flow) - but much like the perfumes themselves - slowly and gently made!
More about the details on the Perfumery in my next newsletter - coming in May - I promise! But you can check it out so long on Instagram @graceatelierperfumery
SECRET SHOP
We recently launched our scintillating new Zoology stationery range in our Secret Shop. See some examples above. Together with my friend Hein in Bangkok, we created this witty quirky range using AI technology, and boy oh boy, did we have fun creating this. Animals in period costumes - talk about a new take on the big five. We have notepads, greeting cards, gift tags, mousepads, and birthday calendars. Please observe the personality and attitude of each character in this range. It sold out so quickly and we have just done a reprint. So pop in before they run out again!
The other new editions in the Secret Shop are our fabulous hand-rolled and shaped “salami“ soaps. My new favourite shower accessory! They look like salamis hanging in net stockings but are entirely vegetable-based soaps... in fact, made with olive oil and the very richest Ghanaian Shea Butter. The soaps are all naturally coloured with rich earthy clays which draw out impurities and help with the soap’s cleansing action. They are man-sized and generous, easy to gain a thrilling lather on a sponge. An excellent gift for Father's Day coming in June.
EATERY
The autumn colours at our restaurant are truly spectacular each year and we embrace our falling leaves with so much joy. The mood is mellow and nostalgic. In the cooler days, we light the logfire and suggest our Hot Chocolate Ceremony. This is a steamy mug of frothy hot milk with a chocolate spoon. Surrounded by little bowls containing chocolate powder, whipped Jersey cream, marshmallows, and then variations like cardamom and rosemary ( with white chocolate ), or orange and cinnamon with dark chocolate. Peppermint options too. A soothing warm ritual for cool, but also heartsore days.
If you are watching your waistline … our coffee never disappoints. I can’t start my day without it - truly the highlight of my morning admin. My heart literally leaps when a waiter walks into my office with my morning cappuccino. Ours is a custom blend made only for Grace + Merci using beans from Brazil and East Africa creating the perfect marriage for a good, nutty strong flavoured coffee.
We have a dedicated generator just for our coffee machine, so even if there is load shedding, we always have coffee!
Come and pay us a visit at 8 Voortrekker Street, Swellendam. Open every day from 8:00-16:00
MARKET
Our Saturday village market - Under The Oaks - runs every Saturday morning unless it rains. We are now in our third year. We marvel every week at the power of this market to build community and unite people. We watch friends engage, reunions happen, dogs meet friends, and kids play. It is the most uplifting happy place to be on a Saturday. It is deeply humbling to be an instrument in this powerful community builder.
Come and pay us a visit at 8 Voortrekker Street, Swellendam. Open every Saturday 10-13:30
Living in harmony with Nature -
When nature whispers - we listen, when she floods the air with her volatile aromas, we rush to capture them.
Our jasmine at home ,is in full bloom - filling the evening with a sweet floral melody - one which I want to capture for my perfumes. I plan to create an oil masceration in Jojoba oil.
My mom and I are hard at work each evening , picking the delicate open flowers in order to lay them in palm butter , to perform the ancient french perfumery technique of enfleurage - used to capture the essence of flowers, and laying them into the jojoba oil to soak out the precious fragrant essence of the flower.
This is a time consuming task and the flowers need to be replaced every single day for at least 8-12 days. One has to be very sure of a good supply of flowers before beginning
The Yesterday ,Today and Tomorrow is also blooming at just the same time. this bush is extremely generous with its glorious fragrance and abundant flowers
The flowers start off deep purple today, then turn lilac tomorrow and are white by the next day
The Palm Butter gently coaxes the aromas from the flowers over time . It is a lesson in patience , respecting time and nature as it gently yields its perfume to the fat medium.
After loading the fat for as many days as you are able to repeat the process without the fat growing nasty moulds, the fat is scraped into jars to be washed for three weeks with natural sugar cane alcohol.
This washing process entails daily shaking of the bottle to transfer the fragrance molecules from the fat to the alcohol.
After more than 6 weeks, of daily interaction , this will be ready for use.
No wonder natural perfumes are costly and precious.
Winter time in the Cape region of South Africa, and it is the rainy season. The wild fynbos plants are experiencing a growth spurt from the season's rain, and this is when they form fresh new leaves and their veins run thick with fragrant and healing oils, their flowers emerge and growth is lush and abundant.
This is the time for wild harvesting in this area .I begin the season's harvests one fresh cool morning in July. Up before dawn, I drive to the area where we plan to harvest, enjoying the exquisite scenery en route. The aloes flower at this time too - and this is Aloe Ferox - a real winter favourite
Proteas ( our national flower ) are blooming in great swathes and there are groups of hungry sunbirds feasting on the sweet new nectar. We pick some proteas for mom as a thank you for the crunchy cranberry rusks we enjoy with the early morning coffee.
The trusty landrover has been kitted out, serviced, oiled and greased - even new shocks fitted to cope with the rough terrain and the extra load of water tanks on the roof. We are ready to harvest
The fynbos plant kingdom is the smallest and richest in the world - one of seven plant kingdoms globally with around 8000 species- 70% of these plants are found nowhere else in the world.There are 1300 species per 10 000 sq.km compared to the South American rainforests which have 400 species per 10 000 sq.km. This is an exceptionally special and unique place.
We live in the heart of this incredible Fynbos plant kingdom and so are immensely privileged to be able to wild harvest our raw materials from our "backyard" so to speak.
John, my Fragrance Forager friend,
has the distillation kit firmly bolted to the sides of the landrover with tanks of cooling water on the roof to enable us to distill the plants on site - right in the wild - fresh straight from picking
And of course, there is always time for tea and those rusks of mom's.We are up the mountain and it is chilly - nothing like a hot cuppa to warm the hands and heart
This is Joe - our KhoiSan medicine man. He knows his plants and keeps a lookout for them from the sides of the Landy as we drive - banging on the roof to alert us to stop when he spots something
The terrain requires four wheel drive - it is steep and rutted and the tracks run as mini streams from all the underground water during this wet season
We harvest Aasbos - or Bait Bush - so called by fisherman as they use it to clean their hands after handling their bait. This plant we are harvesting in the coastal dune belt where these plants occur in abundance
It is an olfactory journey - with Joe handing us bushels of plant materials to smell and identify. Some of them are sub species and we have to continually refer to our reference books as we go to be sure that we are not harvesting anything that may be on the red data list , and to verify our latin names.
The mobile office with a basket of plant books for backup.We consider ourselves as pruners - we never cut everything from a bush , but use a rule of thumb of no more than a quarter. Pruning stimulates new growth and it means we are harvesting sustainably
Joe and John prepare the still for operation , attaching all the pipes for the cooling water flow from the roof, connecting the gas burner and setting up the catchment flask. The guys head out with their picking baskets and secateurs and then gradually return with the plant materials to be distilled.
The drum of the still gets filled with freshly picked organic plant materials, and we sit under a tree and wait while the heat builds and the hydrosol slowly starts to drip from the tank. It is wonderful being immersed in the still calmness of raw nature , the pace is slow and there is time to watch the birds and the ants, feel the warm winter sun on our faces
We make tea and sandwiches for the pickers and we laze around waiting for the golden oil to emerge from the plants. This oil which is fresh, pure, wild and organic will be used in wild perfumes , made with locally sourced foraged ingredients.
At the end of the day ,weary , but also filled up with a sense of replenishment that only pure nature can deliver, we head back down the mountain and home.
Gorgeous George and I take a days journey up the west coast of South Africa to visit a rare and utterly unique plant called Kukumakranka - alias K4- Gethyllis species.
This plant has very strange growing habits and is the basis for many a nostalgic story from the older generation who played games sniffing them out in the sandveld when they were in fruit as their tropical fruity smell is legendary.
We are anxious to meet K4 as I badly want to use this fruity wild harvested plant note in one of my perfumes. Fruity indigenous notes are very hard to come by. I have been introduced to it by a Mr Melck - whose life's passion is the preservation and propogation of this very special species of plants
Mr Melck invites us to his farm and like all South African farmsteads - we experience warm delicious hospitality in the shape of tea and home baked apple and cape gooseberry pie
Mr Melck tells about the strange growing habits of K4. It grows ever so close to the ground and gets eaten by buck, tortoises and hares. It first gives off the leaves, then the leaves die down and one sees nothing there. then out come the prettiest little flowers - again close to the sand and delicious for animals to eat. If the flower gets eaten, it does not have a chance to fruit and seed.
and then......... if the flower was miraculously not eaten, the fruit forms beneath the ground in the shape of little bananas and pushes up out of the soil with a fragrance of tropical summer fruits and strawberries
Traditional use was to place a fruit in the local homemade witblitz for a fruity taste, or to eat the fruit fresh from the soil, or to dry the skins for a fragrant Bible bookmark
Mr Melck knows all the plants on his farm by name and number. He knows which give large tasty fruit and which have interesting colours. He has a tunnel in which is germinates all the seeds he collects and where he carefully nurtures the plants to adult hood - a period of six years before they bear.
His hope and dream is to give away 100 plants to each farmer in the district and to encourage them to take care of the plants and to ensure the survival of this rare and special species.
We have the privilege of receiving the fragrant fruit after the seeds have been removed. I am currently tincturing to use in a seasonal once off batch of seasonal perfume . Watch this space for limited edition items available only as and when we are able to get this ubiquitous fruit.
pinterest has stolen my heart .
that is the long and short of the story.
i am in love with all the beautiful pictures
the mood boards where I can express myself
the sharing of ideas and inspiration
the colour combinations and challenges
palettes to play with
i have found it to be therapeutic
to be a calmative and a essential tool in my survival arsenal
perhaps you could visit my Pinterest account to see what I mean . You may fall in love ..........
sound of cicada beetles in the bush
the smell of rain on african soil
picnics
early mornings
farmers markets
safari tents
the smell of wet moss and earth
dirt roads leading off into the distance
camp fires
picking berries
eating under the stars
riding my vespa scooter with my man
my staffie’s unconditional love
smell of thatching grass
sitting at a water hole waiting for game
tickling my feet
sun dried cotton bed linen
the elegant loping walk of the giraffe
the smell of veld grass parting as you walk
sleeping under a mosquito net
records played on an old grammaphone
morning filter coffee
whales in spring
call of the fish eagle
artichoke and halloumi on ciabatta
spring jasmine
scones with clotted cream
hunting for wild mushrooms
the sound of hyenas and jackals in the night
mozart’s clarinet concerto played really loud
smell of an old library
icy cold homemade lemonade
the sound of karoo silence
head massage
full moon
black figs
heart of palm
croteas and blue cranes
sandstone autumn colours near lesotho
the colour of the african light
shell and pebble collecting at puntjie
the sound of crickets
my mom’s cooking
organic veggies from our garden
the thud of a paddle fan in the heat of summer
watermelon wedges from the fridge
a cup of tea anywhere anytime
candles, fairy lights and sparklers
baobab trees
african acapella harmonising
cheese cheese and more cheese
all the windows and doors wide open
weekend trips
people watching
freshly baked hot bread with farm butter
a highveld thunderstorm
lingering daylight hours
wildflowers growing along dirt roads
driving with the sunroof open
the smell of a braai
anything lemon
thorn trees
antique handwoven linen
hot air balloons
infinity pools
giving to others
unplanned trips to exotic places
the sound of rain on a tin roof
a hand written letter with exotic stamps
a steaming hot bath
street cafes
summer salads
a warm sincere hug
teapots with teacosies
hats
dear precious friends
amazing grace on the bagpipes
hot popcorn at the movies
my man nuzzling my neck
africa
exploring remote and strange places
an all boys choir singing in a cathedral
steam trains
all creatures great and small
humility and graciousness
And this ladies and gentleman, is the man from whom I buy my beads. I discovered him 20 years ago in a Bangkok market and have taken photos of him over the years - growing old - just like me.
With a population of over 1 billion, India is busy and noisy. The roads are another story . With all sorts of exotic traffic trying to get from A to B, everyone has a need to make themselves heard –loudy, persistently , all the time, everywhere. Every vehicle from a bicycle rickshaw to a train, makes itself heard . Diaphanously cacophonous ( is there such a word ?…….. sounds good anyway ) is an understatement for the horn blowing, bell ringing, music blaring noise pollution which one is exposed to on India’s roads ( or shall we call them tracks ).
The journey to Bundi has its challenges. Apart from aforementioned noise and lack of peace, one faces endless hours of vehicular , animal and pedestrian obstacles allowing progress of only a mere 30 km/hr on average. Apart from all the common stray goats, holy cows, overloaded camel carts and diesel pumping tractor taxis , there are enormously and dangerously overladen trucks heading who knows where – Bhopal maybe ? Overloaded to more than double their width and height – so they protrude a full fifty percent into the adjacent oncoming lane. You have to see it to believe it. It is chicken playing game par excellence. It is the wild wild west.
The truck windscreens are gaudily decorated to within centimetres of their line of vision – so they don’t see the oncoming traffic anyway. What you can’t see , you just don’t have to worry about. Decorated with pom poms, luminous woollen tassles, streamers, garlands of real oranges, painted slogans and messages to the vehicles behind, tin cutwork, filigree etc. They are gaudy but loving works of art. And the horns ….well, these are no ordinary hooters as we know them in general civilisation. With one press of the horn the loudspeakers play an entire one minute dittiy at full volume .There are endless variations of these tunes and ditties , each driver having his own special unique signature in decibels.
The drivers ( who live in their vehicles as a mobile home and perform their daily ablutions very visibly along the way for all to see )have an attitude and an ego to mirror their lorry. They travel jauntily with attitude- elbows jutting from the windows, one hand barely on the wheel, grinning with their red betel stained teeth, they steer these amusement parks with alarming recklessness – all to the deafening shrill of hindi music at maximum volume.
My discerning queenly tastes and zen zulu approach to design and my love for less is more and pared down sophistication just can’t quite grasp this idea of beauty with all is loud garish excess and bling. But to the owners of these vehicles they are the most beautiful thing in the world, and they convey them with a badge of pride.
I enjoy the colours, the vibrancy and the pace first, but later, the slowness and noise starts to get me down , and to test my patience and I feel that latent defect gene commonly found in South African city dwellers ,called road rage, rear its ugly head. Unable to change anything about situation I make a conscious decision to travel resignedly , enjoy the mayhem , but secretly longing for the smooth ride of my silver beamer back home, with my cool bluesy jazz music, sun roof and a Woolies chilled lemonade.
Another flight from hell. This time the one to Indonesia – sandwiched between my gum chewing teenage niece and a Frenchman with chronic halitosis. …….. and I have a nose to rival pinnochio.
Fortunately a benevolent air steward rescued me with an extra eye mask to use over my mouth. The Frenchman fell asleep – mouth open – as fate would have it perfectly in line and only just centimetres from my super sensitive snout – breathing foul fumes as he snored.
And so I sat for four solid interminable hours alternatively trying to hold my breath or to synchronise my breath in with his in order to avoid the overwhelming stench of old Coquille St Jacques a la Provencal coming from his fundamental orifice.
Next stop India ….. and the ideal trip to India surely has to be via helicopter – ferrying one in a becoming queenly manner between oases of civilisation and conveniently avoiding the mayhem and squalor in between the jewels .
On the upside, India is truly Incredible as the advert states – exotic and magical . The remnants of a glorious colonial imperial past, the grandeur of the Maharajas make it all so bearable and beguiling.
But to get to each pot of gold, one has to endure filth beyond measure, persistent aggressive beggars, hooting crazed drivers, overcrowded trucks and trains, intense people pollution coupled with chaos and pandemonium.
Just when you start sinking into despair, a colourful sight of a group of labouring women in iridescent saris in a field of rice, lifts your spirits and you can carry on. India is not a place for the faint hearted, impatient or overly hygiene conscious.
So, how does this queen cope ?
Armed with a pot of the strongest brand of Tiger Balm , a bottle of hand sanitiser and an inhaler of potent pungent essential oils – I can persuade my nose to endure. Sunglasses help to screen out demanding beggars, and a strong relationship with my God and Father helps me survive the onslaught of mad mad crazed drivers.
I hate it and I love it, and everytime I cope – only only just.
We went fabric shopping - Analena and me - and decided to have a spot of R&R ( adventure style ) . We did some elephant riding and white water rafting. Cant show you pics of the latter as camera was not on the boat for obvious reasons. You will just have to believe me. What good fun.
Then….. we had to work, running around hunting for beads, buttons, ribbons, strings, fabrics, wools, tools, papers, bottles, spices and all manner of STUFF.
