Eucalyptus
If you come into Tusk this time of year you are likely to be met as you enter with a bunch of eucalyptus greeting you, sending its smell all around. I love the tastes and smells in September. The market bears concord grapes, beans, and yes the bouncing bunches of eucalyptus. In early Tusk days a bunch was much cheaper at the market, so I would buy a mass of it every week to fill the space. I love so many things about it, the smell, the color, the shape of the leaves, joyous and explosive. I just can’t get enough.
As with most plant matter that comes through Tusk I think about what I can do with it as it dries. I would save the eucalyptus in big piles in the back. When the time came I would put on gloves and remove the leaves from the branches, spending hours making sure I got them all off. Doing this would release the scent again into the space months or even years later. I love that, that it keeps giving.
I would then have boxes and boxes of leaves. I played with making different sachet objects, filling organza with the leaves, giving to friends and experimenting with making functional objects. One of the things I made was a sort of scent-accessory that I took to the expo art fair in Chicago. It was a purse that was filled with leaves. Rummaging through it, clutching the handle, and just walking around would release the scent. Also a neck pillow, to envelope you with scent.
One of the take away items I wanted to make for my tenth anniversary were cotton scarves with my ceiling tile print on them. I had never dyed with the eucalyptus before, so I decided to dye the scarves with all the leaves I had collected over the years. Big pots of eucalyptus and cotton in my kitchen, I decided not to use a mordant and just let the eucalyptus do its thing. I loved how they came out, looking like old book pages beautifully aged.
As I continue to write and smell the eucalyptus next to me memories start coming back. There have been many occasions at Tusk where eucalyptus was present. At Emily Sher’s show Pervert’s Harvest eucalyptus was strewn around her ceramics, spilling out of her wine bucket, and on the ground sticking out under the tablecloth for us to step on and release its scent. Last summer Henry gross distilled eucalyptus in my front windows in his handmade glass distilling set up. And last but not least, at my wedding in 2019 I asked guests to carry a bunch of eucalyptus with them as they walked from Cellar Door to Tusk, a wafting procession.
I hope to smell some eucalyptus with you soon <3