How to Make Your Own Incense Sticks
Before technology there was nature. Natural food, drink, and aromatics were prepared in traditional methods by devotees of a spiritual lifestyle through the use of nature's ingredients. Incense burnt in the home offers the benefit of aromatherapy during meditative moments of peace and solitude. The tradition of making incense sticks continues today. Twenty first century incense makers create unique scents for their own personal use by mixing and melding the perfect combination of natural ingredients to produce a pleasing smell when burned. Look to the scents of nature as the source for spiritual growth and inner peace. Easy to make incense sticks can be produced with few ingredients and tools with the help of these easy to follow 'How to' steps.
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Things You'll Need
- Aromatic (solid)
- Binder (Makko)
- Bamboo stalk
- Knife
- Mortal & pestle
- Wax paper
- Paper grocery sack
- Water
Instructions
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Prepare the aromatic portion of the incense for burning. Take large chunks of spice or plant material and place it in the bowl of the mortar and crush the ingredient with the pestle until it has become crushed to the smallest particles possible. All aromatics need to be completely free of moisture to produce a high quality aromatic incense base. When the aromatic has been crushed completely, remove it from the mortar and hold to the side in a separate container.
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Measure and pour enough Makko incense binder into the mortar to equal ten percent of the aromatic weight. The binder does not need to be in any larger percentage when compared to the aromatic of the incense so that the smell of burning Makko does not overtake the benefit of the aroma therapy produced with the burning of the aromatics. Ten percent rule is the best rule of thumb when making stick incense because it produces the best mixture for forming and drying when completed.
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Pour the crushed aromatics back into the mortar with the Makko when the Makko has been crushed as much as the fragrance material. Combine the mixture together until the two ingredients are completely mixed and the incense takes on a thickened, moist state. Remove the mixture from the mortar and place on a piece of wax paper.
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Place an incense stick made from a strip of Bamboo flat on another piece of wax paper. Take an amount of material from the aromatic and Makko mixture and spread it out over and in a straight line with the bamboo incense stick. Fold the wax paper over so that the mixture and the stick are in the bottom of a 'V' of wax paper. Now begin to pinch and roll the wax paper with the stick incense inside. Continue to role and squeeze the stick and the aromatic mixture together until the mixture forms a long thin incense stick around the bamboo.
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Let the new incense stick roll off the rolling wax paper and onto a flat surface covered with brown paper bag and let dry for at least thirty minutes. Continue to pack and roll incense over bamboo sticks until all the aromatics and incense binder mixture is used. After thirty minutes of drying on a brown paper sack you should stick the incense in a holder and allow it to dry completely on all sides.
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Bundle together your home made incense sticks for future use and meditation. Give them away to friends and see how much they love your gift. Burn them when you want to relax or exercise and become traditional in your own personal space with the burning of incense you made when you learned how to make incense sticks.
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Tips & Warnings
Pack an empty straw with the incense material if you cannot make the incense by hand. Insert a bamboo incense stick in one end of the straw and pack the other end until full. Let dry for forty-eight hours then pull the incense free from the straw.
Always add the Makko incense binder slowly until you have the right consistency of aromatic and binder. Put too much binder in the mix and you'll have to buy more aromatics to crush and mix for the incense to burn as it was intended. Some aromatics should be handled with gloves to protect exposed skins, eyes, mouth, and nose from over exposure and possible allergic reaction to sensitive oratory and optic systems of the body.
Resources
- Photo Credit A.W.E.
