BACK FROM LIMBO

Finally the constant stream of early morning classes and meetings has come to an end and the familiar routine of fall quarter has begun. I’ve survived the rear-end collision of the 4-week “early fall start” class into the beginning of my fall classes, with grading and general clean-up from the first class overlapping with prep for the three classes that I’ll be teaching in the fall. The problems created by colliding courses aren’t completely solved yet, but at least they’re managed.

Wednesday was the first day I haven’t had to wake up to an alarm clock in the dark and commute for an hour or more to get to class or a meeting on time. What a difference an hour or two the morning makes! Instead of 60-90 minutes, it takes me about 15 minutes to get to work. Even though Jasper the cat insists that I get up a soon as it’s light, he wakes me gently, and I’m able to enjoy my morning coffee as I read the news, check my various e-mail accounts, respond to whatever needs an immediate response, and prepare materials for that day’s teaching. I have time to take a long hot shower, put on a little make-up, and actually think about what I want to wear that day instead of groping in the dark so as not to wake Michael up and throwing on a random combination of whatever all-black items first come to hand.

There are times when I complain about my job(s) and my lifestyle, but being forced to keep standard working hours for a month makes me appreciate my usual disorganized schedule more than I could even begin to express. I’m thankful that I’m able to schedule my regular classes at times that are compatible with my natural night-owl tendencies.  I’m thankful that I have amazing people working in my university lab who keep things running and provide a buffer between me and the early-rising bureaucrats.  I’m thankful that I can do the work generated by my businesses on my own terms, on my own schedule. I’m thankful that I have my theatre group to take my mind off it all on a few nights and weekends. I can’t begin to imagine how most of the world works from 8 AM to 5PM every day of the week. In Seattle, it’s even worse because a lot of people start work at 6 or 7AM. I have no idea why, but that’s a fact.

The real paradox is that I work just as many, or more, hours if I start later, and I always accomplish more, but it feels orders of magnitude easier. My hat’s off to those hardy souls who go to work in the early morning every day of their lives.

Last night I dreamed that I’d been running a long, hard race, and was so tired that I flopped face-down on a patch of cool, damp, bright green grass. It felt wonderful to rest. However, I started to worry that people passing by would think I was dead, so I lifted up my head, smiled, and waved at them. That’s what this blog post is – just a heads-up to let you know that I’m still alive and well, just recovering from the trauma of a month of the alarm clock screeching in the dark telling me to get up and go out there to sit in clogged traffic for an hour.

[The painting of people escaping from the mouth of limbo (the black fish-monster) is by Jaume Serra, 13th century. All photos are adapted from Wikimedia.]

METAMORPHOSIS

I’ve been away from this blog for far too long. I think it’s just been a little over a week, but it seems like a year. Teaching a class that starts early in the morning takes its toll, as does trying to make all of the changes that are happening with Olympic Orchids, plus the fact that we’ve transitioned from summer into winter while I’ve been silent.

Right now I feel like the caterpillar lying immobile in the pupa stage, everything on hold, waiting for things to happen as its body melts down and re-forms into something completely different. With new branding, new labels, new bottles, new boxes, and a new website coming soon, things are going to look very different, at least on the “retail” side.

There’s some evidence that butterflies can remember things they learned as caterpillars, so there’s carryover from one state to another, one body to another. The intention is that the old Olympic Orchids memory and way of doing things will carry over into the new, prettier Olympic Orchids embodiment. The single, awkward caterpillar body will grow two wings, the upscale retail website on one side and Perfume for the People on the other. With luck it will be able to fly.

The butterfly carries out its transformation in the privacy of its chrysalis, but mine is a little more exposed to public view. If, like the caterpillar, I had nothing else to do and could just lean back and enjoy the ride, it could all happen fairly systematically and efficiently. However, because I do it piecemeal, as I have time, new designs pop up and are mixed with old ones. Pages on the current website change, sometimes introducing mistakes. Some things are added and others are eliminated during the process of metamorphosis.

I’ve been going over sales figures to see if there are any fragrances that have been consistently poor sellers. The only one that obviously falls in that category is Fleurs de Glace, which I’ve decided to discontinue. I’ve put the current stock on sale, and once it’s gone, it will be relegated to the limbo of discontinued perfumes. If you want some, now is the time to get it. At a good price, too.

I also decided to change the name of A Midsummer Day’s Dream to a shorter one that will fit neatly on a bottle. After its makeover, it will be called Elektra. We brainstormed long and hard on names associated with figs, Shakespeare, and the summer solstice, but the best idea we came up with was the association of amber (the fragrance base) with the property of amber (the fossil/gemstone) as a generator of static electricity. Putting that together with the story of Electra, which originated in a Mediterranean country where figs grow, we came up with a short, catchy name that looks nice on a label. The juice will be the same as before, just under a new name. The old Midsummer Day’s Dream stock is also on sale until it’s gone.

[Swallowtail butterfly life cycle photos from Wikimedia.]

WINNERS OF THE DRAWING AND A BREATHER

First things first. The winners of the random drawing are:

NADJA

and

BELLE

Because Nadja wins all of my drawings (I swear the drawings are totally random!) I picked a third winner:

BELLATRIX

If you are international, you will need to e-mail me with your full shipping address. You will receive a selection of samples, mine and others. If you are in the US, you will receive samples plus some larger items. Congratulations to all winners!

This past week I’ve been pretty much buried under teaching, trying to keep up with shipping, and planning for our fall theatre production. The fall rains have swept in with a vengeance, a month or two early, making my early morning commutes miserable. The only bright side of the unusual weather is that plants I thought were dead and mummified have suddenly revived and are growing at a ridiculous rate. The fall crocuses appeared overnight, and are gorgeous. The peppers and tomatoes are getting a second wind, and the second fig crop is well on the way to ripeness. This weekend gives me a short breather before class continues next week. 

The days are getting shorter, and the sun is lower in the sky. It’s sad to see summer end, but exciting to have a new year begin, with all the changes I have planned. 

[Lottery machine photo from Wikimedia. The big leaf maple is mine.] 

THE SCHIZOPHRENIC PERFUMER AND A DRAWING

If you were expecting a true confession in which I reveal that I’m a card-carrying schizophrenic, you will be terribly disappointed. I’m a Libra, which is the next best thing, but up to now that hasn’t officially been classified as a disorder. No, what this post is about is the struggle I’m going through to give my brand a makeover that I’m happy with. Olympic Orchids Perfumes is growing up and going through a conflicted adolescent stage.

On the one hand, I’m pressured by those who would have it go all upscale, glamorous, and expensive. The parents who say, “go to college, get a job, and be successful”. I have to admit that that the prospect of going upscale is exciting and enticing. My perfumes will reach a much wider audience than before simply because they’ll look the part and I’ll be working with wonderful people who promote them. It’s the old adage, “dress for the job you want to have”. However, that new wardrobe comes with a price tag. Fancier bottles, boxes, labels, promo materials, and a professional-looking website all cost money. Trips to shows cost money. Paying a graphic designer to get it right costs money. Aesthetically, from a conventional point of view, the overall coordinated look will be much slicker and more retail-friendly. However, as everything is standardized, some of the random quirkiness will be lost. Unintended quirkiness is quite different from the contrived quirkiness that some perfume lines adopt, and I can’t really see myself going for affected, gimmicky quirkiness, so I’ve opted for elegant simplicity.

If I sell wholesale to distributors or stores, I have to price products high enough to allow them to make their profits while making sure I don’t lose money myself. Right now, the perfumes that I sell on my website have a very small profit margin because I handle every aspect of the business and don’t pay myself anything. I love doing what I’m doing, and I haven’t given up my day job - yet. Getting to tinker in my lab and buy more raw materials has always seemed like payment enough. I’m the kid who doesn’t want to stop playing with his toys in his messy room and go back to school. Aren’t we all that kid, at some level?

The thought of keeping my old website in parallel with the new one has crossed my mind, but it makes no sense to compete with myself and my business associates pricewise. One thought has been to use the new, upscale website for the new packaging of larger, store-ready sizes of selected fragrances and re-brand the current website as a fun “Perfume for the People” venue that would specialize in small sizes, simply packaged. It would include mini bottles (up to 15 ml) of my fragrances that are on the main website, as well as a rotating selection of experimental fragrances. It would also function as a test bed to see what could and should go to the next level.

Another thought I had would be to open “Perfume for the People” up to new perfumers who want to try launching one of their creations without the investment of producing their own infrastructure. I think this would be run as a contest in which the winner gets their perfume listed on “Perfume for the People” for 6 months or a year. If it takes off, that would give them some exposure and time to decide whether they want to strike out on their own. Another thought would be to invite other established perfumers to make simple mini sizes of their fragrances available through the website, the idea being that discerning people who can’t afford the larger sizes can still experience having a small manufacturer's bottle rather than just a tiny sample or a decant. Because it would be a specialized site, no one would be competing with him- or herself. I really like and respect the educated but low-budget demographic and want to keep everything available to them.

Obviously, what I’m trying to do is to have the best of both worlds – the Libra balancing act if ever there was one! As you see in the Soviet-era posters, the capitalist steps all over the proletariat and crushes them; the proletariat steps all over the capitalists and crushes them. I would hope that no one would have to be crushed in the process of developing my two ideas, and that they could be complementary rather than mutually destructive. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. Nothing is final. 

Leave a comment and be entered in a drawing for a nice surprise package of fragrant treats. If there are enough entries, there will be one US winner and one international (samples) winner. 

[Balance graphic and Soviet-era posters (modified) are from Wikimedia]