Our events this month include First Friday Art Walk, the Wednesday Night Market at Alliance for the Arts, Tampa Bay Chocolate Festival, and Crafts on the River. Learn more on our local event page.

We are excited to be vending at the Tampa Bay Chocolate Festival next weekend! We will also be releasing some new tote bag designs and magnets this month!

On Patreon this month, we will be releasing our second digital zine! This one will be themed Love and Chocolate, and will feature art and sketches by Matt and Melissa, a simple incense recipe to try at home, a wildlife feature, and more.

Photo above: Sunset at Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers

Our events this month include First Friday Art Walk and the Wednesday Night Market at Alliance for the Arts. Learn more on our local event page.

This month we will be continuing work on some new designs for a February Valentine/dessert release and a tote bag. We are excited to be vending at the Tampa Bay Chocolate Festival in February!

On Patreon this month, we will be releasing our first digital zine! This one will be themed New Explorations.

Photo above: palm trees at St. Armand's Key, Sarasota.

Our events this month include the First Friday Art Walk, Estero Farmers Market, Makers Market at the Butterfly Estates, and Small Business Saturday at Mercola Market! Learn more on our local event page.

This month we will be releasing some new holiday cards, a holiday incense blend, and some new stickers. The best way to learn about new releases is our newsletter!

Follow our journey on Patreon! This month we will be releasing a color-your-own holiday card, sharing a behind-the-scenes post about the upcoming holiday incense blend, and some photos from our event at the Butterfly Estates. We would love for you to complete our Patreon survey! We will likely be making some changes to our Patreon page, and would like to know what you think.

Photo above: banyan tree at the Edison Ford Winter Estates last weekend.

Greetings from Fort Myers Florida! 

The past couple of weeks have been insane here, to put it lightly. We were fortunate enough to have survived hurricane Ian with very little damage to our personal property and business inventory, but this disaster has hit extremely close to home. Most of our work has been inspired by the beauty and nature on Sanibel Island and the fun vibe of Fort Myers Beach. These past days we have went back and forth with how to move forward. Though it is going to be difficult, we have been inspired by the support of our friends here and the overall optimism of the local businesses and government. More debris is being removed everyday, and rebuilding is already taking place. 

First order of business, you can find Melissa's new Halloween designs here! We've also added some new Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach designs. A portion of all purchases from these categories will be donated. We are currently investigating where the donations will be directed.

A lot of the events and markets we were planning the next few months have been cancelled, for obvious reasons. However, you can still find some Halloween goodies at our Virtual Halloween Market, Estero Farmers Market, Oktoberfest, and Fall Festival at Edison Ford Winter Estates. Learn more on our local event page.

This month we are focussing on surviving, participating in the Drawtober art challenge on Instagram, and printing some cards for the upcoming holiday season. Follow our journey on Patreon! This month we are preparing some interesting incenses and ingredients for the Gum Limbo tier, sharing a photo tour of Six Mile Cypress Preserve, creating a Halloween-themed coloring page, and catching up with a few posts from last month due to the storm. 

Thank you so much to those of you who have supported us during this difficult time! Your kind comments and purchases mean a lot.

Our events this month include the River District Farmers Market, Estero Farmers Market, SWFL Peace Day Festival, and Oktoberfest! Learn more on our local event page.

This month we are focussing on creating some new Halloween goodies, as well as some new releases for the upcoming fall season, including stickers, art prints, holiday cards, magnets, and more. The best way to learn about new releases is our newsletter!

Follow our journey on Patreon! This month we will be releasing a seashell-themed desktop wallpaper, a manatee coloring page, and talking about some of our current art projects.

Photo above: our booth from the First Friday Art Walk in Downtown Fort Myers

Near the beginning of this summer, I was approached by a friend about collaborating on an incense blend. A retreat in Utah was to host an event focusing on various aspects of wellness. I wanted to give the incense a traditional yoga theme, inspired by the sandalwood heavy blends of India, but also incorporating elements of the flora of the American West, especially its forested and mountainous regions.

Copal and their relatives are often the building blocks of my incense blends at the moment. Especially the members of Bursera, one of the most important sources of incense in the Americas. Copal blanco from Mexico was blended with numerous coniferous tree resins including two species of pine from Utah, spruce, and possibly a Pinus originating Copal from Tulum. Small amounts of other ingredients where finally added to sweeten the background of the base. While I do have other ingredients which would have been local to the setting, I decided against them as they have such  heavy, smokey and wintery characteristics.

Halmaddi is an essential ingredient when working with Indian inspired blends, which was further mixed with other exotic exudates. Various herbs and roots bring their green, earthy, herbal qualities without leaving the "burnt leaf" aroma, as their whole forms would. Finished with top-shelf quality propolis...

​Next, various dried woods and fragrant herbs needed to be blended as close to a powder as achievable. Sandalwood, birch, lavender, homegrown sweetgrass and others made up this base. Then the final floral and classic incense notes were mixed into the powder, absorbing the essential oils into the mix. 

Finally, it was time to combine all of the ingredients. Using so many conifer resins, the mix was difficult to work with. Thus needing to be frozen and then blended numerous times to finally create the proper consistency.

After weeks of experimenting, planning, testing, blending, and creating the illustration for the label, the incense is now complete. A small space was left for the names of those attending the class focusing on natural aromatics.

The blend itself was a pleasure to work with. Maybe what I liked most about creating this blend specifically is that it allowed me to work with different scenery, one which was far removed from my current seaside themes. There is a high probability that I will take what I have learned here and transform this into a "coastal meditation" blend for our shop.

Now, off to my next incense project for the 15th Annual SWFL Peace Day Festival!

Matt
August 26, 2022

Check out our August events throughout Fort Myers! We are also excited to be starting a new interview series this month, featuring local SWFL artists and makers.
​
​Follow our journey on Patreon! On our page this month, we will be sharing a seashell coloring page, in-progress artwork and incense, and a Halloween art preview.