Incense making instructions. Rediscover how to make incense the way it's been made by virtually every civilization since before the Stone Age; with fine natural incense resins, woods and herbs.

Incense making is a meditative and enjoyable way to exercise our creativity. It's simple, inexpensive and awakens us to the pleasures of earth's aromatic treasures and our interconnection with nature. Create recipes that greet the rising sun with a clean and invigorating aroma, entertain guests with exotic fragrances, purify indoor spaces, enhance dream activity,  relax with a soft, smooth, calming mixture that eases the troubles of the day, or blend a warm, sweet and seductive mixture to stimulate your sensuality for an evening of mystery and intimacy.

Since antiquity incense has been used for creating aromatic, fragrant spaces both indoors and out. Incense has always been deeply intertwined with religious ceremonies as well as the practice of medicine. In fact the first reported healing practices, recorded in ancient Egypt, exposed patients to the smoke of incense for healing.

Strengthen your connection to nature as soft clouds of frankincense, mastic, storax, sandalwood, cassia, juniper and lemon grass ascend to the heavens! Lets rediscover the ancient art of how to make incense.

Natural Incense Making

• determine the type of incense you'll make
• determine how you will heat your incense
• gather tools
• gather ingredients
• pulverize ingredients (or use powders)
• mix ingredients
• perhaps a drying or curing time
• heat ingredients
• ahh...enjoy!

What "type" of incense will you make?

• combustible incense - used when forming your mixtures into cones or sticks by adding a binding material and a combustible material directly to the incense mixture (no reported explosions yet!). One end is lit, the flame then fanned out, allowing it to burn continuously by themselves. This incense is more difficult to make but easier to burn. Makes traveling with incense easy.

• non-combustible incense (incense of the ancients) - "loose incense" (just the ingredients themselves, after grinding and mixing) or "incense pellets" (loose incense where soft resins, balsams, raisins or dried fruits and honey have been added to form pea sized "pellets"). This incense is heated using charcoal, makko or on mica atop charcoal. This is the easiest method of mixing incense but requires just a few more steps and utensils to burn.

How will you heat your incense?

If you are making cones or sticks then burning your incense is straight forward and simple; you light one end of the cone or stick, fan out the flame and allow it to slowly burn of its own accord. Note: In some cultures it is considered disrespectful to all that is nature to "blow" out the flame.

If you are burning loose incense mixtures or incense pellets, then you'll need charcoal or makko to heat your mixtures.

If you are burning incense outdoors; individual ingredients, loose mixtures and incense pellets can be placed directly in a small campfire (best when there are just glowing coals remaining, no flame) or on a hot rock on the outer rim of a campfire, etc.

Incense burning vessel
- varies by the "type" of incense you will be burning

• non-combustible incense (loose ingredients or pellets):  usually a cup, bowl or saucer shaped vessel filled with ash or sand is ideal (can be made of wood, metal or pottery). Large sea shells, such as abalone, work well too.

• combustible incense (cones, sticks, coils):  again a cup, bowl, saucer or shell shaped vessel works well or one of the infinite number of specialty holders designed for this type of incense works great as well.

We encourage you to choose an incense burner that is handmade or perhaps even enjoy making one yourself. There is an energy to a handmade burner that cannot be put into words, it blends perfectly with the burning of natural incense. This "union" seems to be missing, even reversed with a mass produced incense burner.

Note: We have found that using a cup or bowl shaped incense burner filled with ash is the most versatile way to burn incense. It allows for every style of burning that we know of and the burning of every type of incense except coils, though with a little imagination one could probably work that out as well.   The incense burner is most versatile when filled with ash (allows for burying charcoals koh doh style as well as  using makko), the ash most often used is white rice ash. You can also use sand or pulverized lava rock in these incense burners as an alternative.

Styles of burning non-combustible incense

Lets look at three ancient methods for burning "loose incense" or "incense pellets":

• Charcoal - here we light a piece of bamboo charcoal (without saltpeter or other toxic chemical additives!) and set it in the center of our bowl filled with ash or sand. We sprinkle our incense mixture directly on top of the charcoal or right next to it. The charcoal heats the materials and releases their fragrance into the air. This has probably been the most common method of burning incense throughout history.

• Makko - makko is a natural combustible material from the Tabu-no-ki tree, which grows in parts of Asia. It is a powdered material that burns slowly but with high heat. An indentation is made in the ash using an ash press then the trail is filled with makko powder and compacted slightly using the ash press again (any small form that will make a one way path in the makko makes a fine ash press).<FONTFACE="TIMES New Roman?>Makko style page for a photograph.

• Mica - here we use the charcoal method of heating our incense ingredients but with the addition of a small mica plate placed either on top of the charcoal or we bury the charcoal in a cone-shaped mound of ash by using a flat butter knife or incense utensil. A vent hole is poked from the top of the mound of ash down to the charcoal and the mica is then placed on top of the hole and mound of ash. We then sprinkle a small amount of our incense on top of the mica plate and allow the mica to heat up and release the fragrances of our incense materials. This method will produce very little smoke yet still fill the room with rich fragrance.  This method originates from Japan and is used for during their Koh doh and Kumiko ceremonies. See our section on Koh doh ceremony for a photograph.

Note: We burn our own loose incense mixtures using mostly the mica or makko methods. After use, the ash can be sifted to remove any incense ingredients that may have spilled into it. Unburned pieces can be reused.

Note: Using saltpeter as an oxidizer is a common ingredient in many charcoals sold today. Saltpeter on today's market is either sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate, both of these are toxic chemicals and warn against inhalation. We recommend using bamboo charcoal or makko to burn your incense. A good way to tell if your charcoal has saltpeter in it is to see if it crackles when lit, if it does it most probably contains saltpeter. Here are MSDS reports on sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate that we've found on the web.

The first thing we need is to assemble our list of tools and supplies to make and burn our incense.

(Part 2)