My Incense has Halos

Last night I finished this commission I've been working on for some time. The task was to compose a 'sun' incense, inspired by Norse mythology and folklore. The herbal ingredients are based on runic attributions, e.g. kenaz, meaning a "torch/flame", is represented by the resin and needles of the pine tree, dagaz, meaning "day", by Fir resin, sowilo, meaning "sun", is represented by the Mistletoe, and so forth...

Eventually I came up with two different incense blends:
1.) "Múspell", focusses on fiery, martial and male aspects, red in color, resinous and sharp
2.) "Sowilo", focusses on the light aspects of the Midsummer sun, healing and protective, golden-yellow in color, airy and pleasantly sweet

Both deal with light and fire symbolism. Blend 1 would be used for martial operations, courage and strength of will. Blend 2 is more lofty, yet just as effective, once it unfolds its powers.

The labels on the jars are hand-written with an ink quill, on paper, which has been stained with black tea, coffee and wormwood-tincture, the combination of which created a subtle marbeled effect.
After encountering a series of technical problems pertaining to digitally creating packaging labels etc. I became very frustrated and decided to just do stuff by hand. The time I would have spent on either (including getting things to and back from the print shop) would in fact have amounted to the same.

The customer's response was very positive.

Design & packaging by me, as part of Teufelskunst commissions