[Herbalist] Herbal largess ideas sought!

[lizdenpeters@juno.com]

M'lady,

Our herbal guild has made a number of things for largesse.  Various sizes
of heating pads: take fabric & make a tube long enough to drape around
the neck or squares, etc. and close one end, fill halfway with deer corn,
then put in a fragrant herb (we used rosemary), then fill the rest of the
way with deer corn and close.  This can be heated in the microwave or put
on top of a closed pot on the campfire to warm it.  The herb gives a
pleasing fragrance and the fighters like these for their sore muscles
after a day's fighting.  Another option is needle sharpeners: Make a
small bag sewn on three sides (ours were approximately 1 1/2 inches X 2
1/2 inches, stuff with whole rosemary leaves, then close the end.  When
your needles need sharpening, run them through one of these several times
and it will sharpen the needle.  We attached the labels with a needle.
Also, it will make your sewing basket/box smell great.  Our embroiderers
love these.  Another option would be to make an herbal dusting powder --
very refreshing at hot weather events.  Of course, soaps with essential
oils and herbs would be another good option.  If pressed for time, you
can use some of the melt and pour soaps as your base, or you can make
soap from scratch.  Another item is to take unscented votive candles,
soften them in a hot oven and roll them in ground herbs.  We wrapped
these in tissue in one of the baronial colors and then tied the tissue
with another baronial color.  These candles give a wonderful fragrance
when burned.  We have used all the above projects as well as various bath
salts for our projects.  For the bath salts, we used various blends of
essential oils and put the bath salts in baby food jars (We repainted the
lids).  We used food color to color the salts and painted the lids in
coordinating colors.  For labels, we printed them out on the computer.
For some of the items, the labels had instructions for use; others simply
labeled the item and for the bath salts, the labels described the type of
fragrance, i.e., spicy, citrus, etc.  You could also make bruise balm,
solid hand cream or lip balm.  For containers, you can recycle baby food
jars, the tins Altoids come in, etc.  A little paint & cleaning and you
have containers that didn't cost you anything.  For the fabrics we used
for the heating pads and needle sharpeners, we all simply went through
our fabric stashes for scraps.  Hope these ideas help.

Lady Fionnual the Fey (Nuala)
Barony of the Steppes
Herbal Guild Deputy

On Mon, 28 Oct 2002 03:08:18 EST LadyPDC at aol.com writes:
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> In a message dated 10/28/2002 12:53:11 AM Mountain Standard Time,
> foxryde at foxryde.com writes:
>
> > Any other ideas?  What have you done with your groups?
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Leonora
> >
>
> The best one I have done was finding some nice little balsa wood
> boxes on
> sale at a craft store for 5 cents each, filling them with herbal tea
> mix and
> putting a small muslin teabag in the top of each box.
>
> That was a really nice looking packet but I have done the same by
> putting tea
> and the muslin bag in a packet of clear giftwrap type paper and
> tying the top
> with ribbon in baronial colors.  The teabags are easy to make, just
> take
> muslin and cut into small rectangles, sew up three sides, sew down a
> top loop
> and run a string through it.  The herbs I grow in my garden, though
> when I
> have run short on occasion I have found that most natural foods
> stores have
> mint leaves in large supply at low prices.  I usually stick with
> either a
> mixture of mints or a mint/chamomille mix for the teas as they taste
> good and
> don't seem to cause any bad reactions in anyone.
>
> Another good largesse item is bath oils and bath salts.
>
> Bath oils are easily made by getting almond oil (you can use almost
> any base
> oil but almond oil gives the best base I have found not to mention
> that it is
> period) and whatever essential oil you like.  Use about 15 drops of
> essential
> oil to each cup of base oil.  Mix and put in a pretty bottle.
>
> If you live near the ocean or an inland sea, you can make salt.
> It's a fun
> project that even a 6 year old can do and have fun doing.  Messy but
> totally
> period.
>
> Small bottles of sekanjabin and/or other herbal drink syrups based
> on
> sekanjabin are also very easy to make with supplies on hand and
> always seem
> to be appreciated.
>
> (can you tell I've done an herbal largesse project or two?  These
> are the
> easiest, if you want more detailed time intensive projects let me
> know)
>
> Constance de la Rose
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