How We Make It

steps display of how we make it

The shared steps

1. Selection. Every batch starts with whole herbs, woods, and resins, sorted by hand. Anything musty, moldy, or off-color goes back to the supplier.

2. Washing. Raw materials are rinsed to remove dust and grit before anything else touches them.

3. Processing (pao zhi, 炮制). This is where herbs are made usable: steaming, boiling, stir-frying, baking, roasting, simmering, or soaking, depending on the herb. It is slow, unglamorous work, and it is the difference between an incense that smells like medicine and one that smells like mud.

4. Grinding. Stone mills and stone mortars, the slow way. High-speed grinders run hot enough to scorch the herbs and dull their scent, so we keep it slow.

5. Sieving. Ground powder passes a 120–150 mesh silk sieve, three times, to remove coarse fiber. Fine powder is what makes a stick burn evenly.

6. Formulation. The formulas come from family record books going back to the Ming dynasty, and from the Qian Long era onward the same recipes supplied the Qing court. We blend by weight, following the classical structure of jun, chen, zuo, shi — chief, deputy, assistant, and envoy herbs, where every ingredient has a defined role in the whole.

One line starts from a different base. Piqiu is built on refined panda bamboo fiber: bamboo that passed through the giant pandas at Ningbo Wildlife Park, then went through a thirty-day cycle of boiling, rinsing, sun-drying, and low-temperature grinding. [How that material is made → ] For every other line, the base is ground herb and wood.

7. Mixing. Blended powder, natural nanmu binder, and spring water, kneaded and pounded by hand for about half an hour until the mud feels like an earlobe: not sticky, not crumbly. Then it rests sealed in the shade, 4–6 hours, so it doesn't crack when shaped.

steps of how to make incense sticksSticks

8. Extrusion. Sticks are pressed through hand tools, laid on bamboo mats, straightened by hand, and cut to length with an allowance for drying shrinkage.

9. Shade drying. 7–15 days in a cool, ventilated room at 22–26°C, flipped daily. No direct sunlight; it strips the oils and cracks the sticks.

10. Aging. Major rest sealed in clay jars for a full twelve months before release.

11. Inspection and packaging. Every batch gets a burn test: aroma, smoke, and how evenly it burns. What doesn't pass stays home.

steps of how to make incense beads braceletBeads

Steps 1–7 are the same. Then:

8. Rolling. Beads are rolled round by hand, and hairline cracks are patched with diluted incense mud while it's still soft.

9. Drilling. Holes are punched before the beads dry and harden.

10. Shade drying. 15–30 days, same rules: cool, ventilated, no sun, no ovens.

11. Polishing and stringing. Dry beads are polished smooth and strung into bracelets by hand.

Beads are not cellar-aged. They mature in breathable bags instead, and the scent keeps developing as you wear them.

steps of how to make incense amuletNecklace Pendants

Steps 1–7 are the same. Then:

8. Molding. Incense mud is pressed into carved molds and trimmed by hand.

9. Polishing. Surfaces and carved details are smoothed with a fine herbal slurry.

10. Shade drying. 15–30 days.

11. Maturing. Finished plaques rest in breathable paper bags until the aroma settles. Like beads, pendants are not cellar-aged.