A Novice's Journey into Crafting Incense Beads

Recently, I've seen a bunch of folks online making all sorts of incense beads, and there's quite a crowd watching. Bored out of my mind, I thought I'd check it out too.

Oh, it's just mixing various plant powders like rose, jasmine, and agarwood, kneading them into dough, and then shaping them into little beads, right? Simple and dull, my kind of project. Let's just grab a few materials and give it a shot. Here's a part of what I've got—it's not much.
Just when I was starting to forget about making incense beads, the materials arrived. No tight schedule here, so let's dive right in.
First up, let's grind the coarser materials a bit more

Then, weigh out the various powders and put them on a plate.

Next, mix the plant powders thoroughly (don't ask me why, but I love this part, the soft powder slipping through my fingers...).
After that, a crucial step: sift the mixed powder through a sieve with more than 120 mesh to remove the big chunks and make the powder finer (this increases the surface area, which helps release the fragrance and makes the final beads denser and smoother). I actually treat this as a ritual, because, hey, I'm a stickler for details.

Alright, now we can add water and knead the mixture. Finally, we're at this stage.

Great, then add water, knead, add water, knead...

Until it looks like this.

So, can we make beads now? Oh, not yet, there's still some minor work to do. (I'm already regretting trying this, boo hoo.)
Back to business, we need to pound the dough until it's smooth, soft, crack-free, and can be pulled into threads when torn.
Wow, can we make beads now? Not yet, boo hoo, we need to let the dough rest for at least two hours. I'm getting impatient and almost ready to give up.

Finally, the dough is rested, and we can start making beads. Then, we put them on toothpicks and let them air dry in a cool, windless place for seven days.

In the end, we'll have the rough form of traditional, ancient-method, UNESCO-heritage, calming incense beads. Next up, sanding, polishing, and making them into bracelets... Haha, to be continued, see you or maybe never, stay tuned for good news!O(∩_∩)O