A Stillroom for Slow Making
This is a place for people who enjoy working slowly with plants, seasons, and simple craft.
Here, we make remedies and household preparations by hand — using herbs, honey, oils, waters, and historical recipes — not as rules to follow, but as companions in the work.
Workshops are small and unhurried.
Conversation is optional.
Silence is welcome.
Attention is given to what happens when hands are busy and time is allowed to stretch — when making becomes a way of listening.
You don’t need prior knowledge.
Only curiosity, and a willingness to arrive as you are.
May what you make here keep well.
Stillroom Gatherings
The Humour Apothecary: Balancing the Elements Within
The Hearth Apothecary: A Circle for Midlife Women
The Fragrance Apothecary: Incense, Potpourri, and Floral Waters
The Salt Apothecary: Folklore and Craft of Culinary and Healing Salts
The Witch's Apothecary: Flying Ointments, Bath Bombs, and Smudge Sticks
Nefertari’s Apothecary: Ancient Egyptian Remedies Reimagined
The Earthwise Stillroom: A small garden & stillroom gathering
The Humour Apothecary: Balancing the Elements Within
An evening of laughter, lore, and self-prescribed remedy-making.
Long before modern medicine, healers believed that four vital humours — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile — governed the body’s balance. Too much or too little of one could make you fiery, sluggish, melancholic, or absurdly cheerful.
In this spirited workshop, we’ll revisit those ancient notions with a wink and a wooden spoon — blending history, humour, and herbal craft to discover our inner elements (and restore them to just the right temperature).
You’ll stir, sip, and create four small preparations inspired by the humours — each one symbolic, sensory, and soothing:
💮 Sanguine (Blood – Air & Warmth) For the merry, the sociable, and the occasionally over-sparkly. Craft a rosy cordial of rosehip, hibiscus, and honey to lift the heart and renew vitality.
🌿 Phlegmatic (Phlegm – Water & Coolness) For dreamers and thinkers who need a gentle stir. Blend a clearing herbal inhaler or steam with eucalyptus, peppermint, and thyme — a breath of winter clarity.
🔥 Choleric (Yellow Bile – Fire & Dryness) For the bold and occasionally short-fused. Make a calming vinegar or balm infused with chamomile, lemon balm, and a whisper of rose to soothe the fire.
🌑 Melancholic (Black Bile – Earth & Coldness) For poets, ponderers, and anyone needing grounding. Prepare a rich, grounding anointing oil or cocoa-spice tonic with patchouli and warming ginger.
Expect laughter, spice, reflection, and a few cheeky self-diagnoses. Leave with your creations and a lighter heart — better balanced, in all the right places.
🌞 Includes: all materials, recipes, warm herbal drinks, and a bit of merry mischief.
📍 Location: The Thyme Keeper’s Stillroom, Bookham, Surrey.
🕯 Exchange: £67 per person | 3 hours | Limited to 2-3 guests per session
Nefertari's Apothecary: Ancient Egyptian Remedies Reimagined
Step into a stillroom inspired by the cosmetic jars, resins, and sacred oils of ancient Egypt.
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore remedies recorded in early Egyptian sources — adapted safely and thoughtfully for modern hands.
Together we will:
🏺Grind and blend a natural kohl inspired by historical formulas
🏺Prepare a fragrant body oil with resins such as myrrh and frankincense — an “oil for the eternal body”
🏺Create small rounds of incense inspired by kyphi traditions
🏺Learn about honey, resins, and botanicals used in ancient preservation and care
There will be time to handle raw materials, read translated fragments from early papyrus texts, and label your jars with simple hieroglyphs if you wish.
This is not costume or theatre. It is a sensory exploration of beauty, ritual, and craft from one of the world’s oldest recorded medical traditions.
All materials provided.
No prior experience needed.
Just curiosity — and a love of beautiful jars.
🌞Expect scent, colour, and texture — and the quiet pleasure of working with materials that have travelled through thousands of years of human hands.
📍Location: The Thyme Keeper’s Stillroom, Bookham, Surrey.
🕯 Exchange: £67 per person | 3 hours | Limited to 2-3 guests per session
The Hearth Apothecary: A Circle for Midlife Women
Come into the stillroom for an evening anchored in making.
Among herbs, jars, and candlelight, we gather as women in the long middle of life — not to be fixed, but to be steady, curious, and warm in our hands.
During the circle, we will:
• Hear how menopause was understood in medieval & Tudor households — as reorientation, not decline
• Craft practical remedies to take home: a cooling balm, a soothing tea blend and a strengthening elixir
• Share a gentle tea brewed for rest and composure
• Make space for stories, laughter, and ordinary honesty
This is a small, grounded gathering — part craft workshop, part hearth table — for anyone navigating perimenopause or the years beyond.
🌞 Includes: all materials, recipes, warm herbal drinks, and a bit of merry mischief.
📍 Location: The Thyme Keeper’s Stillroom, Bookham, Surrey.
🕯 Exchange: £67 per person | 3 hours | Limited to 2-3 guests per session