Northbranch Collaboration
Last November I had the most incredible blessing of getting to collaborate with Hans and Rachel Nordgren with Northbranch Candles. I made the vessels and then….get this….they actually let me come to their studio/lab (not sure what you call the space where people make candles….chandlerie?) and they walked me through the exhilarating process of creating a signature scent!!! I was like a kid in a candy shop!
The Nordgrens both have such a masterful way of balancing and layering scents to create full-bodied, rich blends that really have an impact and feeling attached to them. This is why I was so ecstatic when they asked if I would be interested in collaborating! We worked in several different directions until they informed me that they had a scent that smelled like moss……. MOSS!!!!! My closest friends and family know how obsessed I am with this miraculous creation of God. I am literally reading a book about moss at the moment and have been known go hiking with a spatula and plastic baggie. Don’t get me started talking about moss unless you want to be there for a while.
We began working with the moss and then I was curious to see what a hint of citrus might add. Hans and Rachel knew exactly what to layer to create a scent that, to me, smelled like what the forest smells like when you hike right after the snow melts in the early Spring. I was in love but we all needed to sleep on it and see how we felt about it the next day.
The next day came and I found myself cutting clay in my studio. I thought I must be going crazy when I started to notice that the aroma coming from the clay smelled so much like what we had concocted the night before. As soon as I had that thought I ran to get the bottle with the scent laden q-tips in the perfect proportions we had made and sure enough…it was almost identical to the moss scent!!
How incredible….out of all of the hundreds of bottles of scents in that room and the millions of possible combinations the thing that my nose was searching for was the exactly smell that surrounds me daily as I create out of earth. It is also one of the many reasons I am continually drawn into the forests. To wonder at the beauty and magnificence of God’s creations. The fact that this scent also has a hint of citrus nodding to my love of my home state- Florida makes me doubtful there could ever be a smell that better encapsulates who I am and what of all creation thrills me most often.
So I’ll just be sitting over here, sniffing this candle and marveling at what a blessing this whole experience has been. All you nature lovers out there… you’re going to want to smell this thing.
