Ever since a few years ago, Oud had become the buzz word in western perfumery, all the major western perfume houses now carry different “oud” products. I had friends that would ask me from time to time to check out this “oud spray” or that “oud eau de parfum”, and I would respond like……. [Read More…]
Articles
Patina development of Yixing pots
Every yixing pot collector probably would have heard of the legend of seasoning yixing pots, that the longer you use it, one day, by just adding hot water to the pot, you can get tea! It is a myth and a huge misconception, partially due to poor translations of chinese texts. The original historical phrase… [Read More…]
Bad incense or tea day
Recently I came upon a post from someone on a forum that he had a bad tea day despite having followed the exact same procedures in the preparation, from the water quality, to the boiling, to the pot, to the quantity of tea leaves in weight, same steep duration etc, and the tea was not… [Read More…]
ShoranKoh – Smiling Orchid Incense
The ancient chinese always found the orchid a source of inspiration for many of their literary works and crafts. If you are familiar with Guqin music, the oldest written piece ever is 幽兰, elegant orchid. And in incense formulas, there are many incenses inspired from the orchid, with one of the most famous being Sho-Ran Koh… [Read More…]
Kyarazen Handmade incense sticks
Having had purchased and sampled and studied countless incenses from all sorts of origins over the years, it soon became a personal challenge to create incenses that are both artistically inspired, and olfactorily able to match up to commercially available premium incenses. Painting images for others by the scent of a burning incense stick is a personal… [Read More…]
Happy Year of the Goat!
Happy Lunar New Year to all readers! Wishing everyone good health, prosperity, wellbeing and lots of excellent olfactory joys in the Year of the Goat!
Kyarazen is on Instagram!
although KZ is not really on social media, I had created an instagram account just for the fun of it and so that readers/friends can get regular updates on what Kz’s up to. you can find kyarazen here at : http://instagram.com/aloeswoods/
How the Structure of Water affects tea
We all know that the dissolved ions in water, i.e. iron, sodium, potassium, chlorides, carbonates etc affect the taste of the water. But apart from the usual chemical composition of water, there’s another lesser discussed aspect that also affect water and its taste, the physical structure of water! Water’s chemical formula is H2O, which means… [Read More…]
Wabi Sabi and the concept of Wu Wei
I was inspired to write this article when I had the fortune of viewing, and handling a 供春 “Gong Chun” Yixing pot made by Jiang An Qing (1920s). No pictures though, in respect of the owner’s preferences. Amongst the opinions of high end Yixing collectors in the world, no one could make a Gong Chun… [Read More…]
A Eulogy for Mr Lee
As briefly translated : Chairman of the Singapore’s Collectors Society, Catholic high school alumni consultant, Mr Lee Teng Kian passed away peacefully on the 27th of November 2014, 6pm, at the age of 85. His children and grandchildren were present at his passing. He is survived by his wife, five children, and many grand… [Read More…]