Unusually for this blog, today I’m doing an interview. I’m very fortunate to have Tammy Frazer of Frazer Parfum joining me at Skinny laMinx. Frazer Parfum, you might recall, used my pincushion protea design on their beautiful wooden Parfum Solide containers, and I mentioned before that Tammy had kindly donated one of these to be used as a giveaway on this blog! Tammy herself comes from a long line of beauty pioneers and parfumiers, including her grandfather Graham Wulff who created Oil of Olay.

Now, let’s hear from Tammy, all about Frazer Parfum:

What made you decide to become a parfumier?
I have always loved apothecaries and chemists. They’re filled with many curious things and wonderous places, allowing my mind wanders and imagination to soar.
The more I research, the more I love the intricacies of what it means to be a perfumer:  Discovering oils that are extracted from plants and flowers by farmers who grow and nurture the land, then taking them in hand and learning about them on my skin, and how they change over time individually, and then what it means to meld them with other raw materials.
This is what motivates me daily as a perfumer.

Of course having vivid memories of going with my Dad to work, and watching the perfumes on the conveyor belt, or walking into his study late at night seeing him distilling some special concoction have influenced me too. And with the provenance of my Grandfather ever present, knowing what he achieved to take his invention of Oil of Olay to global heights, inspires me daily.

Where did you study?
Like all of what I do, the road is less travelled and filled with questioning.  I read in Time magazine that Albert Einstein had “a lifelong suspicion of all authority” which is something I admire immensely.

In this light I researched, literally going directly to a famous perfume school in Versailles and interviewing them, but I knew that this was not the path for me.  The palette used in these commercial schools is primarily synthetic and the natural raw materials are simply too expensive to experiment with.  Knowing that I would never use synthetics, it was impossible for me to submit.  So I continued to travel directly to the source of my raw materials for lessons in farming, harvesting and distillation along with local geography and geology.
In this way I learn from individual amazing perfumers and botanists around the world who individually take me in hand and at times educate me on the fine balance between the boiling point of Ylang Ylang, Cananga odorata, when paired with the volatility of lemongrass.

What is it about Frazer Parfum that you love the most?
What I love is having carte blanche to explore and research absolutely anything, because anything can be applied in some way to our sense of smell.  Being able to call a documentary videographer and tell him my ideas for a visual concept that translates one of my scent creations into a visual journey and understand his craft, collaborate and produce something together continually makes me grow, redefine and gain momentum.  To be able to employ two girls from Imizamo Yethu to fill the Parfum Solide and create a production line is also tremendously rewarding.

Where can people find your work?
My Haute Parfum range is available in London at the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie in Harrods, and in Amsterdam’s Oud Zuid district at the Annindriya Perfume Lounge.
The Parfum Solide range – which is perfect for travel – is being released at Anthropologie in the U.S. this month!

My bespoke work, that is, creating a scent privately for an individual, is worldwide, and I consult directly with clients by spending time with them in their own surroundings.

Any exciting plans and developments for 2010?
I am working on two new Chapters which will be released later this year.  The one is inspired by my time on the Il de Beaute Corsica last summer and the other inspired by my time in Switzerland, in the mountains.

Next on the passport is the M’Pedougou tribe of Mali where I shall meet the Chief and the ladies who are making beautiful Shea butter from the gathered nuts.  I am scheduled to be there later this month.

Thanks so much to Tammy for taking time out from her busy schedule to do this interview, and also for… gasp!… the fantastic giveaway!

So, if you’d like to have your very own Frazer Parfum parfum solide in ylang and narcisse, Tammy has kindly donated one to be given away right here.

Just send an email to info[at]skinnylaminx.com with the name of the Mali tribe that Tammy’s off to visit next. Then, on Valentine’s Day I’ll randomly draw and announce a winner.

Good luck!

I’ve had my head down, working like a maniac, and so didn’t realise that The 2010 Poppies were announced yesterday on Poppytalk. I’m so, so thrilled to see that Skinny laMinx was voted the Jury’s Choice for the Favourite Textiles category, and in the Peoples’ Choice award, Skinny laMinx was third . Thanks so much for all the votes and for your support. Sounds silly, but I’ve got a tear in my eye. My nose has been so close to the grindstone with a squillion projects on all at once, and I’ve been starting to not enjoy it very much, so this is very timeous and very much appreciated. xx

Congrats to all the other winners and runners up too, especially the always excellent Bookhou, who featured and won in multiple categories. Brilliant!

… a starling!

Not many people think starlings are treasures, but we’ve been enjoying watching this little guy and his mate build a nest, and now finally sit on it. And they sing so sweetly.

The last Friday of the month always means hopping out of bed and onto a bike to join the Cape Town Critical Mass ride!

Paul likes to call it “Critical Shortage”, as the Cape Town cycling scene is pretty teeny weeny (apart from the lycra-clad sports clones), but this one was not poorly attended at all.

Getting up early is not everyone’s idea of fun, but a leisurely ride in the fragrant sea air of Mouille Point, followed by a double-back past the 2010 stadium, along the amazing new Somerset Road cycle path is really something special. Usually we stop at Green Point Vida for a coffee afterwards, but this time we kept going all the way into town, where we had freshly roasted coffee at probably the most hipster spot in the whole city, also known as Deluxe Coffeeworks.

You’ll see beards, moustaches, huge specs, skinny jeans, plaid shirts, fixed gear bikes, Vespas… but it’s not all form and no content, no Sir.  This is a quality establishment, with well-made furniture and fittings, and, most importantly, top-notch coffee, roasted on the premises. Oh, and a flat white is only R10. Yes, that’s R10. I’ll have two, please.

If you’d like to hook up with the bicycle bunch in Cape Town, check out these blogs and websites :

Fixed Gear Cape Town

Hello Again

The Daily Fix

BMC (Bicycle Maintenance Company)

Crosstown Cycles

PaperGirl

See you at the next Critical Mass ride – that’s 26 Feb 2010.

Thanks so much to everyone for all the congrats, woo hoo’s, and ace tips on where to go and what to eat in NYC. And grateful scrapes and bows to the Visa gods who smiled upon us at 10am today, granting our visa to visit the USA. Wheeew!

We wasted no time, and so now tickets are bought (arriving JFK on 16 April), and plotting, dreaming, planning and anticipating starts in earnest.

Yippee!

I’m feeling superstitiously concerned about blogging my incredibly exciting news before the last hoop is jumped through, but our visa interview is tomorrow morning and I just can’t wait any longer to share the news. So here’s a picture of a little city themed mug I made (and sold) last year, to mark the fact that…

…we’re going to New York City! Paul’s been awarded the Ampersand Fellowship, which has also kindly been extended to include me, and so from mid-April to end May, we have the use of a Tribeca apartment for six weeks!

There’s loads to organise, and I’m really hoping to get out and finally meet some of the people stocking my things (Heath Ceramics is definitely on the list), but I’m also looking for suggestions about where to go, what to do, what great music to see, where’s the best coffee around… I want to know it all, and will store every tip in my America folder, to be followed up upon when I have six blissful weeks with nothing to do but absorb and be inspired*!

*All dependent on getting the visa. Please, Visa gods, smile upon us tomorrow morning?

Oh man, this is so great. Ages and ages ago I sent through my family banana bread recipe through to Design*Sponges’ “In the Kitchen With…” feature, but my pics were taken in the middle of winter and really were awfully dark. Not great for sunny banana bread at all. But the brilliant Design*Sponge team ended up baking the bread and photographing it absolutely beautifully! Click here to see. I really am thrilled to bits!

The shops are brimming with bananas, so I think I’ll be hauling out Aunties Betty’s recipe again this weekend too.

PS: I’m sorry this is a bit late, but I must add that the Design*Sponge post was written by the brilliant Kristina Gill of Three Layer Cake, the photos were taken by Matt Armendariz, and the styling was done by Adam Pearson. Do yourselves a favour, and go visit each of these peoples’ sites to see more of their amazing work. Such talent!

It’s hard to believe, but last week I was blissfully paddling about in a pool of time that let me do things like… I dunno… arrange my tea towels in rainbow colours for an hour or so.

Ah, how things have changed since then. The time pool is now a raging maelstrom, swirling with dangerous deadlines and sudden emergencies. Lots more next week about all the exciting things.

Happy weekend, everyone. I’ll be at the Biscuit Mill Market on Saturday, so see you there.

Light is a most desirable thing to have in a studio space, and we’re very fortunate to have a roof striped with skylights, which is brilliant for my painter studiomates. But in the afternoons there’s more, and more, and then, even more sunshine streaming in, to the extent that if I had the time to spare, I could strip down and get a tan. Eventually, I’m chased by sunbeams from surface to surface, until there’s nowhere to hide and I have to abandon whatever I’m trying to do and work on the computer at home instead.

But then, one day I had a brainwave: I need an umbrella – or an indoor parasol, to be more precise.

All it took was a hook in a beam and a ring in an umbrella top, and voila! Good sunshine in, bad sunshine out. I like it so much I’ve bought two more, and now the sunny indoors is banished, and afternoons can be spent in the studio once again. Hooray!

Canvassing for votes again so soon makes me feel like a shameless politician, and, as I’m knee deep into season 5 of The Wire, I’m feeling even more distaste for that breed of human being than I usually do, but nonetheless, here I go again, in full oratory flow:

Dear readers, I just want to thank you for coming here today. I’m so humbled and even honoured to tell you today that Skinny laMinx has been nominated in the Favourite Handmade Textiles category of the Poppytalk annual awards.

My colleagues who make up the competition are an impressive bunch, including Flowerpress, Ink & Spindle, Summersville and Dottie Angel, so I can understand if you’re wondering exactly where to make your mark today. But I say now is the time. It’s time to take action. To deal with any sense of vacillation, confusion and hesitation with decisiveness and with courage. Declare war on over-thinking your decision, dear readers, and boldly make a swift click of your mouse next to the Skinny laMinx button. Do it now. Yes you can!

Click here to vote (for me) before 29 January. It’s the right thing to do.

The copyright of all original images and text on this site remains with Heather Moore. All rights reserved.

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