Sammy A Week of Creativity, Craftsmanship & Lammas Preparations
Some weeks are measured by the number of orders packed.
Others are measured in bowls of herbs, pages of artwork and cups of tea.
This week has definitely been the latter.
Like many of you know, my ME decided to slow me down for a few days, so some of this week’s work happened from the sofa rather than the workshop. It’s never how I’d choose to work, but one thing running a small business has taught me is that creativity doesn’t always need you to be standing up.
Sometimes it simply needs a notebook, a laptop… and a very large mug of tea.
One of our biggest projects this week has been preparing for the August Lammas Ritual Box.
Every month begins as a collection of ideas before slowly becoming something tangible. This week we designed every piece that goes inside the box, from the ritual booklet and altar cards to the artwork, labels and finishing touches. Watching it all come together is one of my favourite parts of the process.
The Lammas tea blend was carefully created to reflect the warmth and abundance of the first harvest, while a bespoke Salt Sizzler fragrance was blended especially for this month’s theme. Every label has now been designed, printed and is ready for packing.
Alongside Lammas, we’ve also been venturing into something completely new…
Incense.
Rather than buying pre-ground herbs, we’ve been experimenting with finding the best way to turn our own dried botanicals into beautiful, fine powders. This week’s workshop was all about discovering the most effective way of grinding last year’s mountain lavender harvest, alongside our homegrown mugwort, ready to become handcrafted incense.
There was plenty of trial and error, lots of sieving, a fair amount of herbal dust, and more than one conversation about particle size than I ever imagined I’d have!
But every experiment teaches us something.
Those powders became our first successful batches of handcrafted incense cones, and watching that very first cone burn exactly as we’d hoped was one of those wonderfully satisfying little victories that make all the testing worthwhile.
The wholesale side of Pippin’s Potions has been quietly moving forward too.
More discovery tea boxes have been packed, ready to introduce our herbal blends to new stockists, while perfume oils continue their journey towards Glastonbury. It’s still quite surreal to think that products created here in our little Old Smithy are beginning to find homes around the country.
Thursday evening also brought another Reading Room.
Books, conversation, laughter and plenty of tea filled the garden once again. There’s something wonderfully comforting about people gathering simply to slow down for a couple of hours and enjoy each other’s company. In a world that often feels in a hurry, these evenings feel quietly magical.
Looking back over the week, it’s struck me that so much of what we do isn’t just making products.
It’s experimenting.
Learning.
Tweaking.
Designing.
Starting again when something doesn’t quite work.
Then finally watching everything click into place.
That feels rather fitting for Lammas.
The first harvest isn’t about reaching the finish line. It’s about recognising how much has grown through patience, care and perseverance.
Thank you, as always, for following along on the journey and supporting this little apothecary in rural Rutland. Whether you’ve visited the shop, ordered online, joined us for an event or simply liked and shared a post, you’re helping this little dream continue to grow.
Until next week,
Sam
