A note from Oormila: Each of these micros has been paired with a miniature painting I made in mixed-media, on used and dried tea bag silk. These are part of a series of over 150 paintings that I painted on tea bags last year when I weaned myself off coffee and started drinking tea. I wanted to recycle the tea bags and I had the idea for making them into mini-canvases. The paintings in this submission have the same title as the micros …
Tag: Botanicals
Growing Roses for Beautiful Scent and Society: An Interview with Saad Admani of the Indus Valley Rose Sustainability Project
Saad Admani is the managing director of Moonstar Admani Rose Gardens & the team head at the Indus Valley Rose Sustainability Project. The IVRSP) seeks not only to ethically grow roses and produce pure rosewater for domestic and international use, but also seeks to improve the region by practicing arts that are centuries old and intimately connected to the ancient cultures of the Indus Valley. He was kind enough to grant me this interview via email and provide the beautiful photos …
Don’t Be Bitter About Dry January: Alleviate the Pain of Sobriety with Hydrosols and Bitters
As regular readers may have noticed, I love using hydrosols to flavor my vodka, but these natural flavorings with little or no sugar, are great for flavoring water too, and hence, indispensable tools for making it through Dry January. Be sure to get your hydrosols from reputable sources. I recommend Aromatics International and Stillpoint Aromatics. You want to make sure that they have nothing in them besides the hydrosol–just water that has been run through the still with aromatic material. …
The Thistles and Fairies of The Botanist Gin
I’ll admit upfront that I loved The Botanist before I ever tasted it. When my boyfriend Alabaster told me about a gin, which , in addition to nine traditional botanicals, features 22 others that grow wild on the Scottish island of Islay, I was immediately smitten. I asked him to nab the last bottle in the shop where he works and hide it till payday. Meanwhile, I would look into these botanicals… The Botanist Gin’s website is a rabbit hole …