Orris Forest

The woods behind a grandmother's house.

South of Saint Louis, close to the Meramec River, a child hikes out into the woods behind the house and down to a creek that feeds the river. Hills to climb, and the smell so fresh, green and vibrant. Later, contemplating orris butter and its watery green side, those hikes came back, and this was made with them at the top of mind: a nouveau fougère of sorts.

A fresh spring day. Flowers in bloom, green shimmering with dew drops, the wet rocks of a creek, and a spicy, mossy undergrowth.

Orris butter comes from the dried root of the iris, and it is the one the hikes came back through; cassie absolute and violet leaf are named ahead of it. Fig leaf with piñon pine and juniper tree follow, then Bulgarian lavender and coriander; oakmoss with coumarin, and dark-aged patchouli with Indian black pepper named last.

Maher Olfactive is the work of Shawn Maher. The wish to make without restrictions on budget or materials led to this house. Olfactory art for art's sake: classic materials reframed in a way that presents them with a new sense of wonder. Behind the releases: a creek in the woods behind a grandmother's house south of Saint Louis, a sailors' saying about the sky, a line of T.S. Eliot's, the words painted under Magritte's pipe, a song of The Jesus and Mary Chain's.

Among the materials: osmanthus absolute taken by some of its less celebrated sides, its sweet, rich side made richer still through an oil made from lavender flowers alone, so none of the camphor of the stems comes with it; a coffee tincture Maher made from a locally roasted Yirgacheffe; and pipe tobacco and whiskey, not truly the things themselves but reproductions of them, extractions and distillations.