Incense

Making incense is fun and easy. It does, however, require a sacrificial grinder (so be forewarned)!

Whenever I make my incense I find myself pondering how the ingredients would be worth their weight in gold two thousand years ago. When the “three wise men” in the bible allegedly brought jesus frankincense and myrrh, they were bringing him valuable bling. Nowadays, I suspect it’d be an iPhone, bluetooth headphones with Swarovski crystals on them, Louboutins,* Louis Vuitton luggage, and a Lamborghini.

[Read more…]

Jenna’s Genius Idea

We were sitting around in my kitchen, after I had just helped her make her first batch of soap. The room smelled of frankincense and we were eating pizza washed down with red wine.

[Read more…]

Things That Delight Me – 3: Photography Apps

I’ve been a fairly serious photographer since about 1993, and even invested the requisite decade in perfecting black and white darkroom printing – just in time for the technology to vanish from commercial use.

Now, you can do amazing photographic things with a smart phone, and there are apps like Snapchat, Hipstamatic, and Prisma to do it. It used to be the thing to sneer at people who’d just grab an image in Photoshop and run some filters on it, but the filters are getting cool! And interesting! But most of all: fun. They’re taking advantage of the massive amount of computing we can carry around in our hand, to do face analysis and then apply the results.

[Read more…]

Soap!

Hot weather is a good time for soap-making. It makes it easy to mix the oils: leave your shea butter and coconut oil on the porch in the sun and they are liquid in 10 minutes. Molds dry quickly in the heat, and the soap doesn’t have any problem gelling – in the winter I have to leave it in the oven overnight (risking a soap volcano!)  Summer soap just sits on the counter overnight and it’s ready to go in the morning.

[Read more…]