The Flower & Fang Story Continues

What’s Coming

First, Jack is going to talk about the Throne, the first Flower & Fang drop coming on June 26th —

Jack chose the name the Throne for this sculpture because it resembles the a throne for that which you hold dear. This sculpture is a vessel for something precious, something to protect, and makes a stunning centerpiece for your home.

To bring you into Jack’s world, here is a photo of the vector file Jack uses to cut the the Throne. This is how it all begins.

“It all starts as a collection of lines, vector shapes that are visual instructions for my laser. The sculpture begins as something imagined in the mind, put together piece by piece, mentally and then digitally, using the measurements of the material I will be cutting. I use joinery techniques (slot joinery in this case) to create a 3D shape from my 2D pieces, once they are all cut from finished hardwood ply with a high-powered laser beam, of course.”

Pro tip: lasers generally read vector lines as cut paths and raster images as engraves — so vector formats like SVG, DXF, and PDF for cuts, raster formats like PNG or JPG for engraves. Many lasers let you stack both inside one file.

Jack has a collection of 18 unique log prints that he drops as a PNG file onto the base piece of each sculpture he cuts.

He sees it as a way to pay homage to the unique nature of each piece of wood that passes through his hands, never wanting to forget the spirit of the source material, and to individualize and randomize each finished piece. He likes to give each one something unique so that each one he makes can stand on its own. No two Throne are exactly alike. At Flower & Fang, we like that kind of symmetrical asymmetry.

Follow along on Instagram throughout the month, as well as through this newsletter, as we continue revealing details about the Throne. Mark June 26 — we'll send the drop link the morning of.

Behind the Bench

Now for a word about the making of Vesper from AYOHWIN:

If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you’ll have seen that the first batch of Vesper has been mixed! AYOHWIN has been working with her fragrance materials for some time — getting familiar with and experimenting as she’s developed the scent — and it’s finally ready for its inaugural run.

Vesper is a blend of accords with a few choice compounds that elevate the scent and tie it all together. A magician doesn’t reveal all her secrets, but AYOHWIN is here to pull back the curtain to show you how Vesper came to be.

The first step for anyone getting into a world as rich as perfumery: you’ve gotta do your research. There’s a plethora of online resources, guides, and communities that have great information for the aspiring perfumer, but here are a few of the texts that gave me a really solid knowledge base to build on for my craft:

All of these books were terrific sources of information and inspiration as I began my journey crafting my first scents.

With the knowledge in hand, the next step was to source ingredients.

Perfumes are made up of a few different parts. What you use and how much you use depends on the end product you’re trying to achieve. For Vesper, we landed on the classic Eau de Parfum.

The first part is the Carrier — the substance that forms the base for the fragrance to blend with and sit within. For an Eau de Parfum, we use pure, lab-grade Ethanol, also known as Perfumer’s Alcohol. This carrier accounts for roughly 80% of the final product in an Eau de Parfum.

Blended with the carrier, we opted for a Base de Parfum from Perfumer’s Apprentice. This base helps bind the fragrance into the carrier, and affix the final product to your skin for smooth, long-lasting wear.

Next up, the fragrance compounds themselves.

All scents — natural and synthetic — are made up of a wide variety of individual molecules that sum to form recognizable odors. Rose, for example, mainly consists of 3 to 4 dominant scent molecules, with increasingly trace amounts of several dozen others. Trying to capture recognizable scents is the toughest job of the perfumer. These mixtures of individual aroma molecules and extractions are called Accords.

For Vesper, we opted for some of the best accords available from Vetiver Aromatics.

Developing your own accords is a long process — one I am currently having a great deal of fun with — but pre-made accords are a fantastic place to build your reference points and experiment with for your own mixes. Vetiver’s are extremely well-crafted and make for a fantastic fragrance if paired and blended with a skillful touch and a few choice added ingredients.

Thus, we’ve come to what you’ve been waiting for: the scent profile.

Every perfume has a spine consisting of top, middle, and base notes. For Vesper, I centered my mind in matrilineal wisdom and a ritualistic vibe. I wanted this scent to be a strong, deep, but unmistakably feminine aroma suited to the maven and the muse.

The base of the fragrance is Frankincense and Myrrh — a spicy, woody, amber blend used for thousands of years in religious rites and medicines.

The heart of Vesper is Osmanthus flower — a fruity floral with a sweet leather undercurrent native to East Asia. It’s paired with smoke and peppercorn notes to elevate the base and color the flower with warmth.

At the top is a combination of Green Tea and Citrus Oils, bringing a bright green shimmer that accentuates the sweet Osmanthus and beautifully contrasts with the deep base.

Perfumes require a long time to macerate once mixed — up to ten weeks — but you’ll be the first to hear when it’s bottled and ready for you to wear, and I’m just as excited as you are.

Thank you for reading!

We’re having so much fun in the studio and are so excited to keep sharing our process with you all! The next newsletter will be coming on June 21st.

Look out for updates on our Instagram about the Throne drop coming June 26th, and find us in person this month:

• Fremont Sunday Market — Jun 7 (TODAY!!) & 14

• Summer Solstice Night Market (SLU) — Jun 20

• NW Metaphysical Market (Tacoma) — Jun 27

A special thank you as well to Dying Wish Tattoo for featuring us alongside other local queer businesses at their upcoming Pride month flash event. We love networking with other amazing local folks and can’t wait to do more.

— Jack Danger & AYOHWIN

🐀<3🐀