The Mother's Fragrances Incense
The Making of Mother's Fragrances
The Mother's Fragrances Incense is made by the age old masala method, the original way of making incense. We use only natural ingredients. A variety of scented flowers, herbs, leaves, essential oils, resins and wood powders or charcoal are blended with water to form a dough. The mixture of ingredients is different for each fragrance.
maria carefully weighs and mixes the ingredients
The scents of flowers are generally subtle and delicate. Charcoal, which burns without a scent of its own is therefore used for the floral fragrances. These sticks are black. The brown sticks contain a variety of wood powders and herbs and are used to create more woody fragrances like amber.
The dough is rolled onto thin slivers of bamboo and allowed to dry in the shade. The girls who do this work take extra care in the rolling of the the incense stick, making sure the tip is well rounded, and discarding any bamboo slivers that are too thin.
the rolling of the incense sticks
When rolled and dried, the sticks still need to be packaged. Our beautiful marbled packaging starts with a white sheet of paper, which is carefully and lovingly marbled. If you have ever tried to do this yourself, you will know how difficult it is to get a perfect result. Each fragrance has its own colourscheme and pattern, and the required paints are spread out on to a tray with water and made into a pattern. A sheet of paper is then carefully lowered onto the surface, any airbubbles are removed and the paper is gently lifted and hung to dry.
spreading the paint with a fan
After the paper is dried, it goes to the printing unit. Even here, as much as possible, the work is done by hand, and all the printing is done by screenprinting. Quite how the ladies manage to keep their clothes so spotless is a mystery to me! Each sheet of paper is carefully printed, and then cut out. This is the only thing that we use a machine for, and it is a museum piece of a machine for that!
screenprinting the packaging
And this is where it all comes together: on the low tables in the packing unit. This is where the incense sticks are counted and put in greaseproof paper bags, where the packaging is folded and glued, and the sticks are put in their final packaging, together with a leaflet. All ready for the long journey to your home!
work in the packing unit