Fresh Incense & Rope Incense

Witchy Wisdom
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I have a very good witchy friend here in town. Whenever we get together, we always exchange little practice items with each other. Sometimes is herbs, crystals, & this last time it was Rope Incense. I had never seen it before & I couldn’t remember hearing about it either. This rope incense is Sandalwood.

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Rope incense is handmade typically in the Nepal or Tibetan area & used in Hinduism & Buddhism. It’s all-natural herbs, flowers, plants, trees from the Himalayans along with resins ground & mixed together in a rice paper & rolled tightly. When you want to burn the incense, place the rope on top of a pile of ash & light 1 end. I enjoyed using it & then my attention turned to making my own incense.

I have an apothecary full of dried herbs & flowers. I have a fabulous collection of essential oils. A sleeve of charcoal discs. I started looking on Pinterest for incense recipes, but that started a rabbit hole of recipes, DIY cones, there were videos… so I had to go to bed, but today my interest is still there. Why limit my apothecary to just spell jars & candle dressing?

I found out that you can use fruit too! the dried fruit peels can be put into the mortar & pestle. For things like bark or seeds. Once they are small enough, a run through a coffee grinder will help break them down to be easier in the mortar & pestle. If you are making loose incense, the need to use the coffee grinder instead of using the small chips or pieces of wood & resins will ultimately come down to personal preference.

Larger pieces or chunks of wood bigger than a grain of rice & resins will damage a coffee grinder. You are better off using something like a hammer & chisel to break them into tiny pieces before using

Once you have the batches of incense put together, incense recipes are typically done in parts. So then your measurement style would be based on how you’re measuring. By volume would be using items such as tsp or Tbsp. By use would require a scale & be able to weigh things in grams or parts of grams such as 0.1g. The batches can then be stored in sealed glass jars for future use if you make them by volume.

How to Make Loose Incense & Four Thieves Incense Recipe

How to burn rope incense

Rope Incense Burner

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Fun! I remember when I first learned I could make my own incense lol I was so excited! If you’re wanting to make cones and sticks, I actually have a video showing how I did it :blush: I’ve been meaning to make some more but I can’t find my extra sticks anywhere lol

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Thank you! I am hoping to graduate to cones &/or sticks of my own. I am waiting on dark Soapstone mortar & pestle to arrive & I already have a coffee grinder if I need it.

The other thing that had got my interest really going was that I found a container with the incense sticks to make stick incense. I was looking through a drawer & my witchy box. I have resins & charcoal discs & the sticks & all kinds of herbs & flowers. So I had to think of a way to either let them go because I don’t or haven’t really used them or find a way to incorporate them.

I love to make things so I thought, I will learn how to make my own incense! :blush:

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I love this! I made cinnamon incense cones. I actually still have a couple. I’ve never heard of the rope before. Sounds neat to try. I be scared I’d start a fire.

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I put the rope in my copper bowl or cauldron on top of incense ash. It smells much better than commercial incense.

I like hand rolled incense sticks, so I’m hoping to get to a point that I can make my own.

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That’s amazing, @Susurrus- I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rope Incense before. It definitely sounds like something I’d like to try! :heart_eyes:

Aside from stovetop incense (which likely doesn’t count haha) I haven’t made my own incense before! Thanks to everyone for the advice and tips- I’d love to give it a try someday :two_hearts: :diya_lamp:

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This is how I made my cinnamon cone incense:

It’s not hard at all!!

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Thank you! This looks like something I can finagle with my hands! Once I get my mortar & pestle, I’m going to try this! Thank you @christina4

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I can’t wait to hear how it goes!

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I’ve never heard of rope incense either, so thank you for the information. Nice looking spoon you got there… :wink::laughing:

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Thank you! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I think you will like it. Even my husband likes it better than more commercial incense (stick or cone). It’s a lovely scent that isn’t so, pungent or fake smelling. ( I’m not sure fake is the right word)

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Through making my own incense, I have found that mortar & pestle is great for herbs & flowers. Generally, you need the incense resin to slow the burn of the herbs with fresh incense. I use the mortar & pestle but I found that because the resin is a little sticky… it leaves a layer in the mortar & pestle that then sticks to whatever else you use inside it. With that in mind & I won’t use the same resin with all of my incense blends, I went out yesterday & bought a $10 coffee grinder. I put the resin in & gave it a quick zoot & all done! Then I put that resin with the fresh herbs & cleaned out the grinder.

My mortar & pestle is made from Soapstone, so the resin seems to really attach to the bowl. I used the grinder & then all I had to do was use a paper towel on the stainless steel. If it was that easy with the soapstone, then that’s what I would have continued doing.

Also if you are using woods, ie: palo santo, then using the grinder is also a better option. I would probably give it a couple of zoots because of the wood, but it would break it up easier to be used for incense.

Both materials are hard to work with using the mortar & pestle & elbow grease. It would be a lot of work & possible discomfort. (My hands being the issue for me)

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