Balls Inspector!

or what i made today.

today was all about balls, namely making incense balls similar to that of the Egyptian incense, and i am sure a few other cultures made them in a similar way but can't quite remember.  anyhoo i made five different varieties, see the picture below

there are five different sorts? flavours? smells? i even have names for and they are, Yemaya, Sea Witch incense balls, (those are the ones on the tray that are oblong shaped) the bowl behind that is the Mamma Watta Bath Salts, they are similar and go together.  the round ones on the tray are called "Earth Goddess"  the dark ones on the plate next to the bowl are the counter Part to the Earth Goddess, i guess they could be called, The Green Man, ??  (as opposed to Gods sticky Balls, teheh )   the ones on the plate next are called Furious Rose (the title of a Lisa Lobe song, cause the lady who suggested the excellent combination of rose, cardamon and ambergris reminds me a little of Lisa Lobe) and then the balls on the plate at the front of the picture are ones i made two weeks ago, and they are sweet temple incense.  yay..

so i spent the day grinding, burning and smelling as with Fire Fly series playing in the background.  most enjoyable.  below are extrema close ups of the various balls..  for your viewing pleasure.  these should be showing up on the etsy store in i would say 5 weeks or so.. as they take some time to harden.

incense balls are pretty easy to make, it takes herbs, flowers, resin, type ingredients which have been ground into a powder.  thankfully i have a coffee grinder which i use to do some of the harder herbs like storax bark, and moroccan rose resin, and star ansie, the rest i used the more traditional mortar and pestle which is fun to and your arms get a good work out. once you have ground your herbs you add the honey, which i heated in a little glass bowl in the sink which had hot water in it, as it makes it much more runny.  i was using manuka honey thus it is a little more viscous than clear runny honey.. anyhoo.. you mix in the honey until it becomes like dough, sorta. then you kneed it,, actually i just passed it from one hand to the other and squeezed it cause i made about a good sized handful of each.. once i figured that all of the ingredients had been combined enough i used a tiny 1/4 teaspoon and made little balls, or pallets, and ta'dar,, balls, sticky balls.. but fun all the same. 

not so difficult but you do get sticky incense stuff under you nails so i suggest that you cut them before hand.. *nods*.

Sweet Temple

Furious Rose

Yemayas, Sea Witch

Earth Goddess

The Green God

anyway our house smells of the following Ambergris, amber, honey, ginger, Storax, Damar, Patchouli and a whole slew of other exotic scents.. kinda nice really.. *beams*