Warmed, never burned: the ritual of Nerikoh

A Clean Slate, Carried on Smoke

There’s a moment after guests leave, or after a week that ran long, when a room feels like it needs opening up. Not cleaning exactly. Something closer to clearing.

Californian White Sage has been used for that purpose for a very long time. Hand-tied and slowly dried, our bundles are about eight inches — enough to be held comfortably, enough to last through many uses. The scent is herbal and dry rather than sweet: green, a little peppery, closer to the smell of a hillside in summer than to anything perfumed. It burns evenly and slowly, which matters more than it sounds. A poorly dried bundle sputters, smokes hard, and goes out. A well-made one holds a steady, quiet smoulder.

The practice itself is simple. Light the tip, let it catch for a second or two, then blow the flame out so it’s smouldering rather than burning. Walk it around the room, or fan the smoke gently towards yourself — corners, doorways, anywhere that feels like it’s been holding still. There’s no correct route. The pace is the point: slow enough that you notice you’ve slowed down.

When you’re finished, press the tip into a heat-resistant bowl or dish until it’s fully out, and let it cool completely before putting it away. Never leave it burning unattended, and always work over a fire-safe surface. A ceramic burner or a solid dish is all it takes.

Kept dry, a single bundle will see you through many months of small resets — a studio before a day’s work, a home before people arrive, a quiet evening that needs a line drawn under it.

Worth knowing: white sage is a slow grower. A plant takes around three years to reach a size worth harvesting, and it’s traditionally cut rather than pulled, so the root stays in the ground and the plant regrows. That’s part of why properly sourced sage costs what it does — and why a bundle is worth using thoughtfully rather than by the handful.

Click an image below to explore the Californian White Sage smudge sticks.

The Quiet Weight of Wood and Brass

Some objects earn their place on a shelf simply by doing one thing well. This is one of them.

At its heart, it’s a long, low tray — walnut or beech, carved with a gentle channel down its length, fitted with a solid brass insert at one end. Nothing about it asks for attention. That’s rather the point. It’s designed to sit quietly on a console, a bedside table, a shelf by a window, and to be picked up without ceremony each time it’s needed.

The brass insert carries three precision holes, sized to hold a stick securely no matter how thin the stem. Beneath it, the carved channel does the unglamorous work of catching ash as it falls — so the ritual stays a ritual, not a small daily cleanup. It’s a detail that only reveals itself in use: you notice it the first time ash lands exactly where it should, rather than on the table.

The wood itself is left to speak for itself. Walnut runs dark and richly grained; beech, paler and finer. Each piece is hand-finished, and because the material is real wood rather than a uniform composite, no two holders share quite the same pattern — small variations in tone that are part of the object, not a flaw in it.

Used daily, it asks very little: a wipe with a dry cloth, and a bit of patience if the brass begins to change colour with age.

Worth knowing: that colour change isn’t the brass wearing out — it’s patina, the same slow tarnish-and-soften process that’s long been part of how brass tools and fittings are kept in Japanese incense practice. Many are left to darken naturally rather than polished bright; a few years in, the holder looks less like something bought and more like something used.

Click an image below to explore the walnut and beech incense holders.

The Story Behind the Speckled Candle Jar

The speckled glaze on these jars looks like a modern decorating choice, but the technique behind it is genuinely old. Potters in Staffordshire, England were producing spattered and sponge-decorated stoneware as far back as the mid-1700s, blowing or dabbing colour onto plain earthenware to make it more durable and easier to sell. It travelled to Scotland, then across to America by the 1840s, where it became a staple of ordinary, affordable kitchenware for over a century. What was once a practical way to dress up an everyday plate has ended up, a couple of hundred years later, as the finish on a candle jar — which feels like a fitting continuity for an object that’s meant for daily use rather than display.

Each candle is made of plant-based wax, poured for a steady, even burn, and a ceramic vessel. The scent is deliberately restrained rather than heavy: Gardenia in the black jar, soft and creamy; White Tea in the blue, clean and understated; Little Freesia in the yellow, light and faintly sweet. None of them are designed to fill a room so much as settle into it.

A few basics keep the burn even: trim the wick to 5mm before lighting, and on the first burn let the wax melt out to the edges of the jar — around two to three hours — so it doesn’t tunnel down the middle on future burns. Keep burns under four hours at a time, away from draughts, and on a heat-resistant surface.

Once the wax is gone, the jar doesn’t have to be. It’s sturdy enough to hold pens, brushes, or anything small worth keeping somewhere decent-looking.

You can find the jar candles, in all three scents, in the shop – click on the image below.

THE SLOW BURN OF AN EVENING RITUAL

Not every table needs a full-length taper. Sometimes what’s useful is something shorter — easier to fit into a low holder, easier to group two or three together without crowding the surface. That’s the reasoning behind our stubby candles.

Each one is made from plant-based wax and finished with the same smooth taper as our standard candles, just scaled down: 110mm in height, 22mm across — about 4.5 inches tall. Burned correctly and kept out of draughts, they hold a steady flame for roughly four hours and are built to burn without dripping. They’re sold as a loose pair, so you can light both together or keep one back.

The smaller size is what makes them practical rather than just decorative. They sit well in shallow or narrow holders that a full taper won’t fit, work in pairs down the centre of a table, or stand alone somewhere a taller candle would look out of place — a low shelf, a bedside table, a smaller dinner setting.

A few basics keep them burning cleanly: trim the wick to about 5mm before lighting, set them in a stable, heat-resistant holder, and don’t let them burn for longer than four hours at a stretch. Full care and safety details are listed on the product page.

Interesting fact: before mechanical clocks, marked candles were used to tell time — the even burn rate meant hour-lines scored along the length actually worked as a timer.

You can find the stubby candles, sold as a pair, in the shop – just click on the image below.