Begin with nice, blemish-free fruits. If you'd like to hang it from a ribbon, tape or band off sections where the ribbon will go, so you don't put cloves there. The lemon shown being worked on will shrink quite a bit, but there will be a clear line where the rubber bands have been.
Use something sharp to make a hole, rather than trying to jam the cloves in. That just makes your fingers hurt. We used wooden skewers here, but have used nails, etc. in the past.
We enjoy making different patterns and designs. They won't be terribly clear when the pomander is cured, but they do look pretty cool. When the kids were little, we set them to work on the tiny kumquats, and they loved it... of course those are too small for any sort of pattern.
When the fruit is covered with all the cloves you want to insert, make up a rolling blend. We used equal parts of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, with a smidge of orris root.
Cover the pomanders and then roll them over and pour the spices over every side and surface.
Each day for the next couple of weeks you'll want to roll them around gently in the spices, and spoon it from the plate onto the top of them. They will gradually dessicate, become incredibly lightweight. You can enclose them in fine mesh if you want, or just tie a ribbon around them to hang in the closet.
A really fun and fragrant craft for the holidays!
Over those years, we've had the opportunity to see families grow, change, and add or lose a generation. The customers came to love Jellybean, a sheltie who felt it was his duty to escort everyone up the hill. When Jellybean died one Christmas morning after completing his yearly duties, Rudolph joined the family and has taken up the cause - albeit not quite as willingly.
My sister and I have put our collective wares together in a little shop, and every year we meet new people and make new friends. It's a lot of fun.
We will use several different fragrant herbs and spices to create beautiful, artistically organic beads that can be combined with other stones and beads to form amazing jewelry that will emit scent as you wear it. You will be making beads and taking them along home.
It is our pleasure to share some of what we've picked up along the way AND what we did wrong so you don't have to. We'll be making cold-process oatmeal and lavender soap. This is a demo-style class, but each participant will leave with some of the soap we've made and the know-how to go home and make it themselves. Materials will be available for purchase on the day of the class should you want to do that and a class hand-out with clear instructions will be provided.
Learn about using fixatives to hold the scent longer, how to incorporate blossoms from the garden and what to look for on woodland hikes. Leave with some of both kinds of potpourri that you've made yourself. Recipes and instructions included.
Learn about the different ingredients, and why you'd want to use them. Participants will each make and take a jar of salt scrub along with recipes and instructions to make more at home.
Winter Sunshine Moisturizer, a clay mask, Lavender Rose Cream, and a simple pore cleansing lotion will be on the "menu". We'll send some of them along home with you as well as lots of recipes and instructions.
How about something to help relax and sleep, or to tame that tummy ache. There are even anti-viral herbs growing wild outside! Come learn about them with us!
We'll make one of each, and everyone takes some herbal honey home along with recipes and instructions.
Each participant will make their own, choosing from various ingredients. We'll all roll about a dozen or so cones to take along, and have recipes and instructions if you'd like to make more. Hard to find ingredients will be available for purchase on the day of class.
We thought that if it had been snow, we would have happily been trapped in our delightful suite for a few extra days, but we needed to get back. Personally, it was time for the Jan/Feb magazine deadline, and for my dearest, there were other commitments to return to. So we played and we ate and we relaxed and had fun. 
It was a delicious break before getting back to business on Thursday afternoon.
We are getting many requests to either do on-line classes or make DVD's of the ones we are holding - so we think that the taping will be easier.
Like we do with the soap, perhaps - we have the DVD, the kit that matches what we're doing exactly, and also the soap book. That seems to work well, I think.
With the addition of the items I found in the woods, she came out better than I expected, and I can't wait to see how everything dries tomorrow!
So that's been my week.
Isn't this a gorgeous evening in November?
Into the oven they went for about 25 minutes. At 15 minutes I spun them, because my oven cooks the back ones first. 
They came out pretty well.
This week we talked about different methods and different herbs, how to use tinctures, and then everyone made a pint jar to take home. I thought we'd all make elderberry, but as it turned out we also had someone who chose to pick vitex berries off the bush out back, another chose holy basil, Maryanne wanted the echinacea I'd dug and cleaned prior to class (that jar is beside the soap, above), while I used some ephedra. It was a lot of fun! With a bigger class we wouldn't have been able to be as flexible in either of the classes.
Maryanne's wholesale soap business is keeping us hopping as shops stock up for the coming holidays, and while I was doing the mailing last night, she was making a batch of liquid soap. We've been playing around with some seriously cool molded soaps lately, too.
This is my favorite time of year (wait... didn't I say that in April?) Ok, ok... there are many favorite times, which makes me lucky. I do love the hustle and bustle. It's invigorating to be trying to figure out how to get things done in between this class, those orders, writing an article for somebody, and spending a day at Radiance.
