Hand-crafted Seals and Hand-stamped Labels

I made a decision in the beginning to farm my lavender with my own hands. I felt it was important to carry this philosophy all the way through the product. This means the packaging too.

As a result, I vowed not to use computers or computer printers to generate the labels for my products. Therefore each and every product bears a label that has been meticulously hand crafted and stamped.

In the photo to the right, you can see the block printing in progress. The blocks are redwood blocks that I milled from wood I had laying around the farm. Then I hand carved the Carmel Lavender name into them. I use several blocks to print background patterns, then the label on each and every label. Die punches are used to punch each tag from the paper strips.

Many of the products also bear the Carmel Lavender seal. This seal was created for me by hand by an artisan I met while traveling in China. Before my trip, I had been talking with a friend of mine, Susan, about block printing. My wood carving skill lacked precision to realize the ideas I had for the essential oils, which are small vials with not much area for carving. She suggested on my trip to try to find a "chop" carver who could do this for me. For those who do not know what "chops" are, they are the seals used to stamp signatures in China. There are many carvers there. So she recommended to draw my design and then talk to the carvers and find one who could do it.

I designed the seal on the plane over. I went to every chop carver from Bejing to Shanghi, showing them my design and asking if they could do it. No, it was too complicated they told me. Finally, I was about to give up, and our last stop in Shanghi, I found myself in front of the City Buddhist temple. There was a chop carver just outside the temple. I showed him my design, and he said he could do it.

It took him hours. I waited, watched, visited the temple, watched some more. Walked the streets of Shanghi, came back and watched some more. He worked so diligently. At last he was done. He took out his own book of all the chops he had designed, and stamped it. Carmel Lavender is now in his book. He showed it to me. Ahhh, Perfect. Now each and every bottle of lavender oil from my farm bears the seal that he carved for me by hand. Just as I farm.

Many have told me that this is too much work. But I feel that the energy in every aspect of the product must be consistent. Must reinforce what it is about. This is not just a commercial enterprise. It is a passion. And that passion is carried in every drop of oil, and every mark of ink on every bottle. That is how it has to be.

If you would like to own a 5ml work of art, you can order from our On-line Lavender Shoppe.