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Le Parfumeur Rebellee

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Lyn Ayre & Tonie Silver ~
A Rebelle Rendezvous

4 August 2008

Hi Lyn, & welcome to LPR~

Thanks so much, Tonie, it’s great to be here on such a sunny summer day.

You teach Natural & Botanical Perfumery; tell us about what kind of
students you're seeing.

My course is called “Natural Perfumery ~ a path to the Heart of Spirit”. Coeur d’
Esprit means ‘heart of Spirit’. This course involves working with spirit energy and
being in touch with the spirit of the plant while making perfumes. When
students inquire about the course, this aspect is often brought up as people find
the concept very attractive. For me, it is not about mimicking what has already
been done in the marketplace. It is not about making French perfumes or
becoming a commercial perfumer (French or otherwise) or even a ‘nose’. It is
about connecting to our inner spirit, connecting to the spirit of the plant, then
using perfume to connect to our higher self in a safe and pleasing way. It is a
gentle course with no pressure to win or succeed or be the best. It is fine to just
go along and learn at your own pace and become more of who you were meant to
be.

My students come from all walks of life. They are teachers, students, spa-worker,
a nun, an artist, an Aromatherapist, a retired senior, world traveller, someone
looking for a new career in perfumery, and so on, ages 22 to 78, from Canada, US,
Australia, France, and so on. Some have worked with the essences for years and
others have only always wanted to.

When they first contact me, they are each asked to write a letter of introduction
detailing why they would like to take this course on perfumery, how they came to
find me, and what they hope to get out of the course. The essays are poignant,
exciting, hopeful, and as varied as the people who write them. They are required
as a starting point so that the student can see, in black and white, what they are
about to do and evaluate whether or not they would like to proceed. It seems to
me that all kinds of people are interested in learning more about Natural
Perfumery.

Nature/Nurture: How important is the education side of the art? Are there
certain nuances that you feel simply cannot be taught?

I am a teacher by nature, as well as a life-long student of my personal passions –
writing, art, music, and all the gifts from Mother earth, which, of course, includes
perfume. Teaching this course was a natural progression, for me, from all the
learning I’d done to that point. My passion carried me forward to become the
independent perfumer I am today. I am self-taught, nurtured by the thousands of
perfumers who have gone before me, the hundreds of writers who have written
about perfume, the dozens of perfumes I have created, and the feedback I’ve
received from my clients. I did the work, and part of the work involved writing this
course so I could make sense of what I’d learned so far about perfume. I put in
my time, all the while seeking a mentor but found no one. What I did find were a
group of people who were in constant competition for their place in the sun and
who wanted to wield power and control over others. This is not something I am
into as I don’t believe in competing with anyone. I wish I’d have had the benefit
of an affordable correspondence course like mine but there wasn’t one to be
found. So I wrote it. …lol… (big grin)