How to Make Incense Rocks
Although most people purchase ready-made incense, you can make your own. The benefits of making your own are that, rather than waiting for the “perfect” incense scent to hit store shelves, you can experiment until you find the right scent for you. Also, once you learn how to mix a basic incense recipe, you can then mold it into any form you want—sticks, cones or rocks (or pellets.) Though each form has its own benefits, incense rocks are the most adaptable, as they can be spread over multiple types of heat sources, rather than burned in just one way. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Scent ingredients of your choice
- Measuring spoons or cups
- Several small bowls or containers
- Mortar and Pestle or hand-cranking grinder
- Honey
- Wooden Board
- Wax Paper
- Large Paper Bag
- Glass Jars
Instructions
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1
Decide on the primary scent and/or scent combination to use for your incense. The best way to do this is to choose one of your favorite scents, then choose complementary scents to blend with it. Choose two or three other scents to mix with your primary scent. (See the resource box for a website that features a comprehensive list of scents, their characteristics, and the scents that blend well with them).
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2
Decide how much you need of each scent in your recipe. A good rule of thumb is to mix equal parts of each scent ingredient together in your recipe (although you might want to double or even triple your primary scent). Measure your scent ingredients out separately in their whole forms, using measuring spoons or cups. Pour the measured amounts into separate little bowls or containers (one bowl or container per each of your scent ingredients).
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3
Grind each ingredient separately, using a mortar and pestle or a hand-operated grinder until they resemble small pellets. Make the final measurements for your incense recipe from these pellets and combine them (all of your ground, separate scents) into the mortar and pestle.
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Lightly grind the mixture together with the mortar and pestle.
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Sprinkle honey into the mixture, a little at a time, until you can knead the mixture together like a ball of bread dough. Knead it for a few minutes to assure that it is well-mixed.
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Pull small pieces off of the mixture, and roll these pieces into small pellets.
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Cover a board with wax paper.
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Put the pellets on the board to dry. Slide the entire board into a paper bag and close the bag.
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Turn the pellets at least twice a day. This will ensure that the pellets dry evenly.
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Seal dried pellets into a glass bowl, in a single layer, for as long as you want, but no less than 48 hours. (Make sure that you do not stack the layers of pellets on top of each other, as this will cause them to meld together). The longer you keep the pellets sealed inside this glass bowl, the more aromatic they will become.
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Tips & Warnings
With experimentation and experience you can modify the exact amounts of each scent ingredient until you have concocted the perfect blend for your incense rocks.
Incense rocks are best when heated indirectly. For best results, sprinkle them over a hot charcoal briquette or another heat source. Never light them directly.
Never use a hand grinder for soft, gummy ingredients. These work best when ground with a mortar and pestle.
