I have designed this particular perfumer’s organ for my Ninja Perfumer’s life, composing perfumes for bazaars and courts. This has conditioned the choice of the materials used to build it. It had to be as light as possible and take as little space as possible and to fit in a suitcase for air travels.

Below are the steps I followed for the construction. They can be applied to other materials as illustrated at the bottom page.

The rows are of aluminium. Measure the length needed for the number of bottles that you want to hold in a row and cut them the same size. Don’t forget to take the measure with your labels on the bottles, they will change completely the measurement for 10 or 20 bottles. At the bottom of the page is a link to how to make your own labels.

The second step is to cut small pieces of wood in the right size so that your bottles will fit perfectly in the row once the wooden pieces are fixed with screws or nails to the aluminium frames.
You should prepare small holes at the right place, on the side of all your aluminium frames, so that they will be mounted quickly.

For this particular organ, I did not count the thickness of the labels when I cut the wooden pieces, because the walls of the row are very low and it was better that the bottle fits directly on the strong glass rather than on soft labels. Moreover, I shall need the bottom space of the bottle free of labels in order to be able to heat them with a gas lighter, for my thick absolutes (cistus, oak moss, tobacco etc…).

If your aluminium rows are long you should rivet them in the middle to ensure that the bottles will not be loose in that place. Small copper screws used for fixing the frame are perfect for this.

When your rows are made, fit them all into the wooden frame.

Fit the rows in the frame and fix them temporarily with a nail so that they can turn. They should be filled with all the bottles. You need that to calculate the right distance between 2 rows.

Start with the upper row filled with bottles, fix it on the frame with the nails, take the bottles away, fill the second row with the bottles inside it, and fix it. Go ahead until all your rows are fixed.
In order to allow the rows to rotate perfectly when they are all filled with bottles, you can insert temporarily an aluminium piece between the top of the bottles and the row above it when you nail them, in order to allow a small space to remain.

Finish your frame, replace the nails with screws and fix 2 back legs to hold the organ standing.

Your organ is now ready, you still need to fix a handle on its top to carry it, and you can make a simple cover to protect the bottles from falling off when you transport it.

For the box, I use wooden frames for paintings and thin plywood. Your suitcase is ready.

I usually cover the plywood with some Kilem or brocade cloth, but I think that for this organ I could use thin leather.

The bottles are in a vertical position and occupy minimum space. In order to open your organ for working, just rotate the rows and all your scents are ready at hand. 144 raw materials are easy to use, transport and store.

Are you now ready for a Sicilian working holiday? Making perfumes for the people and selling them while enjoying life in the true Sicilian way.

See different folding perfume organs made with other materials on this page