Making Incense

What does it take to make good incense? Good materials? Good instincts? Good education? Creativity? Passion? 

Yes, all of that, and more. The best incense makers, in my experience, are those who have a relationship with the plants and their extractions, and who focus on reverence. If you love and adore the materials, even if they smell like a sweaty Sumo wrestler pooping on a pile of burning tires, the creativity to work them into a formulation just happens if given the opportunity to spend quality time with the materials. Time and reverence, giving those materials the chance to tell you what they want, to direct your hand, nearly always results in a spectacular incense. You scoff. Have fun with that dismissiveness, and the materials will have their fun with you. 

I'm going to write an incense book specifically for warming incense, and this comes directly from my natural perfumery education. Seek out the best authentic and sustainable materials, always do what is necessary to highlight those materials, use your knowledge of balance and material dynamics, and for all that's holy, listen to the materials! Also, warming incense is much more forgiving in terms of its burnability -- think of the possibilities! You can use loads more resins, plant waxes, and extracts without worrying they will adversely affect how the incense performs. What you get is the pure scent. 

I plan to use this blog as my incense book ideas format. We'll see how things pan out, as the old-timers say.