What DIY project did you tinker with today?

[Mr.P]

How about a "DIY project of the day" thread? I'm imagining projects related to incense or perfume making but I suppose any DIY will do!

Today I was checking on my five second year Clary sage plants, they will flower this year and I'm going to make an extract - very excited about this one. There's nothing like good fresh clary.

just a couple of days ago I extracted some cannabis resinoid from flower I grew a couple of years ago. This has a nice aromatic pungency, smells a bit like hash but with a variety of other notes as well.

what have you all been up to?

 

[Joe]

Tobacco flower absolute from enfleurage (low temp immersion type) - fresh batch today, this represents about 300 flowers' worth of oil View attachment 56217View attachment 56218View attachment 56219

Woah, looks gorgeous. What’s it’s odor profile…the resulting extract?

 

[Mr.P]

Woah, looks gorgeous. What’s it’s odor profile…the resulting extract?

It's interesting it has some attributes that remind me of some organic jasmine extracts I got from Eden years ago in terms of having a very rich and sugary type of sweetness. It's hard to describe… Sweet, waxy, floral, complex with a little unusual characteristic that reflects the fact that this is coming from tobacco I think. I'm surprised at how pleasant and clean it smells given how fresh it is

 

[Mr.P]

Man I've got a big lineup of stuff to process and extract, things really snowball a bit over the course of the summer, not sure what to do next… actually have a chance of getting through this list though thanks to the enthusiasm of a neighbor. We've had a couple of afternoon sessions - extraction over beer, tobacco, cannabis etc. and it's nice having logistical support and someone to discuss decisions with. I've had friends/neighbors who were sort of vaguely interested but no inclination towards DIY or scientific stuff so it was more of a "show and tell" experience.

Options ready to extract now include:
Wild cucumber flower enfleurage
Mountain mint and Clary sage ready for distillation
Kinam chips
Sandalwood chips
Spruce resin
Pine resin
Lots of wild local Zanthoxylem
Green szechuan peppercorns
Red szechuan peppercorns
Elecampane root
Valerian root
Wild carrot seeds
Walnut or Hickory shells
Geranium, Rose type
Tobacco leaves
Yamada Myrrh resin i have had for 25 years
Sumatra benzoin
Plus, everything in the local forests and fields including different soils and earths and things like that.

I have time today - trying to decide which one to tackle… I had kind of lost my momentum early in the summer but the recent successes with the clary, tobacco flower and Zanthoxylem cologne have me charged up.

Will post brief notes here and details via instagram (@wabisabikouki), please reach out to me there by DM if are interested in finding out more about anything that I've been making, want samples, etc..

(I continue to post stuff like this here not because I think everyone is fascinated with what I'm doing, but because I'm hoping to connect with anyone who might be doing similar things).

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Man I've got a big lineup of stuff to process and extract, things really snowball a bit over the course of the summer, not sure what to do next… actually have a chance of getting through this list though thanks to the enthusiasm of a neighbor. We've had a couple of afternoon sessions - extraction over beer, tobacco, cannabis etc. and it's nice having logistical support and someone to discuss decisions with. I've had friends/neighbors who were sort of vaguely interested but no inclination towards DIY or scientific stuff so it was more of a "show and tell" experience.

Options ready to extract now include:
Wild cucumber flower enfleurage
Mountain mint and Clary sage ready for distillation
Kinam chips
Sandalwood chips
Spruce resin
Pine resin
Lots of wild local Zanthoxylem
Green szechuan peppercorns
Red szechuan peppercorns
Elecampane root
Valerian root
Wild carrot seeds
Walnut or Hickory shells
Geranium, Rose type
Tobacco leaves
Yamada Myrrh resin i have had for 25 years
Sumatra benzoin
Plus, everything in the local forests and fields including different soils and earths and things like that.

I have time today - trying to decide which one to tackle… I had kind of lost my momentum early in the summer but the recent successes with the clary, tobacco flower and Zanthoxylem cologne have me charged up.

Will post brief notes here and details via instagram (@wabisabikouki), please reach out to me there by DM if are interested in finding out more about anything that I've been making, want samples, etc..

(I continue to post stuff like this here not because I think everyone is fascinated with what I'm doing, but because I'm hoping to connect with anyone who might be doing similar things).

Thats a good list 🙂
Guess anything fresh comes first, woodchips will still be woodchips in the winter, florals not so much..

 

[Mr.P]

Thats a good list 🙂
Guess anything fresh comes first, woodchips will still be woodchips in the winter, florals not so much..

I've up got the next project loaded up and ready to go, doing a codistillation of herbs over alcohol, bergamot oil and spring water.

Pictured are the ingredients… basket of clary in the front,with (L-R) mountain mint, catnip, armoise, and leafy lavender shoots on the plywood there. This is all packed in the still, I plan to add a healthy dose of crushed wild zanthoxylem for that lovely floral-citrus Szechuan peppercorn scent. Just trying to figure out how much peppercorn to add, I will have the still up and running shortly.

The big question for me is whether it's possible that all of zanthoxylem will add enough citrus that I can leave out the citrus oils that usually are added to the mix. The ground peppercorns smell a lot like kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and it smells like there might be enough oil there to actually complete the cologne without adding citrus. It's kind of a big gamble though... I might just reduce the amount of bergamot oil instead of eliminating it.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

I've up got the next project loaded up and ready to go, doing a codistillation of herbs over alcohol, bergamot oil and spring water.

Pictured are the ingredients… basket of clary in the front,with (L-R) mountain mint, catnip, armoise, and leafy lavender shoots on the plywood there. This is all packed in the still, I plan to add a healthy dose of crushed wild zanthoxylem for that lovely floral-citrus Szechuan peppercorn scent. Just trying to figure out how much peppercorn to add, I will have the still up and running shortly.

The big question for me is whether it's possible that all of zanthoxylem will add enough citrus that I can leave out the citrus oils that usually are added to the mix. The ground peppercorns smell a lot like kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and it smells like there might be enough oil there to actually complete the cologne without adding citrus. It's kind of a big gamble though... I might just reduce the amount of bergamot oil instead of eliminating it.

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I would opt to reduce, not leave oud completely, but thats just gut feel, while you have live nose data 🙂 all looking marvelous, enjoy

 

[Mr.P]

I would opt to reduce, not leave oud completely, but thats just gut feel, while you have live nose data 🙂 all looking marvelous, enjoy

That's what I decided to do, in fact it's up and running now. Relative to the alcohol, springwater, and herbs, the added oils are about 50% as strong as usual. I left out lemon altogether because I feel like the zanthoxylem can provide that. I'm using alcohol recovered from extracting sweet woodruff and sweet fern which will contribute a relatively mild aroma if anything.

 

[Mr.P]

Same as last time, the Szechuan pepper is making an oil that is volatile but not particularly soluble in ethanol. At the current moment I'm smelling the impact of the catnip - the aroma is changing as the distillation proceeds and this was not as evident earlier. I love the muskiness of this plant and I think it could be nice in the context of a cologne. I wonder what my cats will think?

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Apparantly its the high concentration (30+%) of lemonene in zanthoxylum which will crash out at the slightest pressence of water, but you probably had that figured out already 🙂

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Talking about 30%, did you know 30% of cats do not have the gen that triggers a response to catnip? 🤓

 

[Mr.P]

Apparantly its the high concentration (30+%) of lemonene in zanthoxylum which will crash out at the slightest pressence of water, but you probably had that figured out already 🙂

I knew it was something like that but I had not yet looked up what it was! Thank you for that information. I got less out than I expected given the volume of alcohol and water that I added but I think I had so much plant matter that it just acted like a sponge. I'm not sure whether to settle for the 300 mL of fragrant alcohol I collected or to put a little bit more alcohol and water into the still and try to push it a little further.

 

[Mr.P]

In the end I got a good quantity of a cologne foundation, the aroma of the peppercorns is a dominant feature, and it smells unusually good for something fresh out of the still. I'll have to think carefully about how much neroli I add. I don't feel like much if any petitgrain is necessary - zanthoxylem is in the citrus family (rutaceae) and the smell of the crushed fresh green peppercorns has some elements that are a lot like petitgrain.

 

[Sproaty]

Was just checking out your latest video on your gardening project. Looking good @Sproaty
Although shooting in portrait mode is understandable for Instagram etcetra....it's brutal everywhere else....😇

I agree but it's also easier to hold a phone one handed vertically. which one did you watch?

 

[Sproaty]

(I continue to post stuff like this here not because I think everyone is fascinated with what I'm doing, but because I'm hoping to connect with anyone who might be doing similar things).

I'm glad that you do, it's interesting to me from a more botanical point of view - my interest in scent has kinda waned a bit, but the gardening obsession has become interesting with the smell of things I grow, flowers, veg etc.

 

[Mr.P]

I'm glad that you do, it's interesting to me from a more botanical point of view - my interest in scent has kinda waned a bit, but the gardening obsession has become interesting with the smell of things I grow, flowers, veg etc.

Thanks, I'm always interested in seeing information on projects like this myself, anything related to gardening, making simple natural perfumes, foraging, extracting, and tracking down practical and interesting raw materials. Talking about this stuff in a place where other people are talking about this stuff feels normal, like participating in a community. In other contexts, not so much. Don't know what to think about Instagram...

 

[Mr.P]

Speaking of which, I'm going to crank out another project this afternoon it looks like my neighbor will have some time to assist. might try distilling top notes out of the spruce and pine resin.

Need to get some kind of press to get more oil out of the immersion enfleurages...


Options ready to extract now include:
Wild cucumber flower for enfleurage (or
distillation over alcohol) - violet like scent
Mountain mint and Clary sage ready for distillation
Kinam chips
Sandalwood chips
Spruce resin
Pine resin
Lots of wild local Zanthoxylem
Green szechuan peppercorns
Red szechuan peppercorns
Elecampane root
Valerian root
Wild carrot seeds
Walnut or Hickory shells
Geranium, Rose type
Tobacco leaves
Tobacco flowers
Yamada Myrrh resin
Sumatra benzoin
White pine needles
Sandalwood billets / India
Sandalwood billets / Australia

 

[DubOudh]

I'm glad that you do, it's interesting to me from a more botanical point of view - my interest in scent has kinda waned a bit, but the gardening obsession has become interesting with the smell of things I grow, flowers, veg etc.

The one with the pongy fertilizer...

 

[Mr.P]

Locally collected pitch pine resin currently being distilled over alcohol. The resin seems to have real boiling point elevation effects because the water bath had to be about 15° hotter than normal to get a good boil.

 

[Eleusis]

How is your cleaning technique for distilling resins in glass? I always use stainless steel because i have to scratch hard to get rid of (cold) resin leftover. But if there is a cool tech for cleaning glass, i might use glass ass it is easier to see the material and watch for the resin bubbles to come out.

 

[Mr.P]

How is your cleaning technique for distilling resins in glass? I always use stainless steel because i have to scratch hard to get rid of (cold) resin leftover. But if there is a cool tech for cleaning glass, i might use glass ass it is easier to see the material and watch for the resin bubbles to come out.

This was distilled with/over alcohol mind you, but I had no difficulty cleaning because I dumped all the material out while everything was still quite hot from the water bath. So either the temperature itself or the combination of high temperature and alcohol made it quite easy to clean. I was told by a couple of people I know who have done quite a bit of distillation that the resin can be very easy to clean up after if you do it right after distillation. For instance someone who had been distilling some frankincense was telling me that if handled properly all of the resin being distilled in frankincense would clump up into a spent nugget of gum and leftover resin etc. that was very easy to remove from the still when warm