meet Clara Weale, a perfumer crafting scents from her Glasgow based studio under the label Early Modern. Her 15-year journey into perfumery began with a fundamental question: how are scents actually created? This fascination with the mechanics and materials of scent also led her to establish A Library of Olfactive Material, a non-profit Glasgow institution dedicated to scent education and experimentation.
How did your journey as a perfumer begin, and what has shaped it along the way?
My journey as a perfumer first began as a journey into the materials of perfume, rather than the perfume itself, if that makes sense. Around 15 years ago I suddenly became preoccupied by how little I understood how scent was made, the actual mechanics and materiality of it. I immersed myself in as much information as I could, and as many materials as I could, without an end goal in mind.
What emotions or memories do you hope to capture in your creations?
I'm really interested in this phenomenon which is familiar to anyone who has tried to put words to scent - the experience of being reminded of something, but something just out of sight. You feel like if you think about it hard enough, you'll figure it out. But most of the time you just have to let it go. I remember this being described as a word being "on the tip of your nose." Throughout my process of making a scent I'm pushing and pulling layers of the familiar and unfamiliar, abstraction and photorealism, trying to create something that could trigger that sense of recognition.
How do the landscapes, textures, and cultures that surround you find their way into your practice?
I'm primarily a city dweller, and was born in a very concrete-dense place (Birmingham). I think architecture, and particularly urban environments, have a big influence on my practice. Glasgow is a very damp city, and there's always a degree of entropy or degradation present which potentially makes its way into my work. I've always needed there to be a level of contrast in my creative work, I feel like it creates a contrast that I find compelling.
What is the story of your perfume Celadon?
Celadon began life as an exploration of colour and texture within perfume. I was preoccupied by the idea of creating a scent that felt simultaneously solid and liquid, by the idea that glass or ceramic are liquids in solid form, transformation of states and the concept of that tension being noticeable in scent form. We are actually really good at recognising or assigning temperature, texture or physical state to scent - things can smell cold, wet, dry, rough etc. I wanted to use the durational aspect of perfume to create a scent that went from a bright, wet, crunchy green through a slow sparkling fade into something dry and pale. The lettuce top note came fairly late on in the development of the perfume. For someone who enjoys contrast I really struggle with top notes, they just aren't for me. I was seeking to add in a bright green contrast that made sense within the wider context of the perfume and, for whatever reason, recalled how wild lettuce sap is a milky white form of latex. This image made sense to me, and once I'd created a trial of the fragrance with its new lettuce element it felt complete.
discover the perfume in our discovery set:
How do the landscapes, textures, and cultures that surround you find their way into your practice?
I'm primarily a city dweller, and was born in a very concrete-dense place (Birmingham). I think architecture, and particularly urban environments, have a big influence on my practice. Glasgow is a very damp city, and there's always a degree of entropy or degradation present which potentially makes its way into my work. I've always needed there to be a level of contrast in my creative work, I feel like it creates a contrast that I find compelling.
What is the story of your perfume Celadon?
Celadon began life as an exploration of colour and texture within perfume. I was preoccupied by the idea of creating a scent that felt simultaneously solid and liquid, by the idea that glass or ceramic are liquids in solid form, transformation of states and the concept of that tension being noticeable in scent form. We are actually really good at recognising or assigning temperature, texture or physical state to scent - things can smell cold, wet, dry, rough etc. I wanted to use the durational aspect of perfume to create a scent that went from a bright, wet, crunchy green through a slow sparkling fade into something dry and pale. The lettuce top note came fairly late on in the development of the perfume. For someone who enjoys contrast I really struggle with top notes, they just aren't for me. I was seeking to add in a bright green contrast that made sense within the wider context of the perfume and, for whatever reason, recalled how wild lettuce sap is a milky white form of latex. This image made sense to me, and once I'd created a trial of the fragrance with its new lettuce element it felt complete.
