A moment to breathe…and talk about joss powder!
What an amazing year the last 12 months have been! We launched the new website in June 2020 and the response has been overwhelming. I so appreciate all of our customers. Thank you for making such a great year.
I’ve been so busy that any ideas of working on a new book are out the window for now. Instead, I hope to write a series of booklets over the next 18 months or so. I’ll break up the various chapters of the large book into more digestible pieces and publish them as I finish them. It isn’t as desirable, but at least I can get the information out there to folks who want to read it.
While I have been extremely busy over the last year, especially since “Magic Makko” has become such a hit, but I occasionally get to head out to the workshop and delve into new materials. Most recently, this has been a different joss powder. The joss powder that I currently sell, and that is included in Magic Makko, is considered “white” joss powder, although it’s really tan, lol. I imported this new, red joss powder directly from a producer in SE Asia, and it’s amazing. Incense binders come in a variety of strengths. Often times, incense makers have no idea of the strengths and properties of their binders, so we develop general rules that work in most cases. That approach did not work with this joss powder. I had been told by the producer that it had very good viscosity, but I was not prepared for what I found.
Typically when I work with an unfamiliar wood binder, I begin by mixing the binder alone with water. That gives a good feel for the binder and its strength, as well as enabling later tests of its burning properties. When I attempted this with the new red joss powder, it was unrollable. It was so sticky, and so strong, that it was challenging just to knead it. Once kneaded, it was virtually unshapeable. I ultimately had to toss the first experiment as utterly unusable. As I began to experiment with recipes for this new binder, I had to cut the amount of joss powder in half each time. It took 4 reductions before I finally had a mixture that I could at least shape. This stuff acts more like a gum binder than a wood binder. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it for new incense makers, although I don’t want to deprive them of what might be the most useful wood binder I’ve ever seen.
To that end, I am working on a new makko blend that will use the red joss powder as its binder. I am working on a formula that will allow incense makers of any degree of experience to easily and quickly use this “super binder”. It will probably be the end of Sumer or the start of Autumn before it will be available for sale, but I will keep you updated on the progress of the new blend. Just keep an eye out here.
