Forgotten Skillz offers hands-on workshops, outdoor experiences, and experiential education programs across Long Island. Our events explore the connections between nature, traditional skills, cultural history, craft, science, stewardship, and human ingenuity through direct participation and discovery.
Programs may take participants into the woods to learn fire-making, navigation, foraging, ecology, or wilderness skills; into the workshop to explore historic crafts and technologies; or into the past through activities inspired by the ways people have created, adapted, solved problems, and understood their world. Events are designed for a range of ages and experience levels, with opportunities for children, teens, adults, families, homeschool communities, and the general public.
Crafting Incense – Vanderbilt Museum
Saturday, October 3rd | 10AM | Vanderbilt Museum | Centerport
Step into the ancient art of incense making and discover how people across cultures used smoke, scent, resin, bark, herbs, and fire to shape atmosphere, ritual, meditation, celebration, and daily life.
In this hands-on Forgotten Skillz workshop, participants will explore the foundations of traditional incense crafting while learning how different materials influence aroma, burn quality, and overall experience. Together, we’ll examine classic scent profiles from around the world, experiment with aromatic ingredients, and discuss how incense can be crafted from both globally traded materials and plants found much closer to home.
Participants will:
- Explore traditional incense materials, including resins, woods, herbs, spices, and aromatic powders
- Learn how charcoal, makko, and heat work together to create a controlled fragrance
- Experience different incense burning methods and scent profiles
- Create a custom loose incense blend
- Hand-roll their own incense cones to take home
- Learn the difference between loose incense, cones, and other traditional forms
Along the way, we’ll touch on the history of incense across cultures, the role of scent in human experience, and how ancient practices continue to influence modern aromatics, perfumery, and mindfulness traditions today.
Each participant will leave with their own handcrafted incense creations and the foundational knowledge needed to continue experimenting at home.
No prior experience is necessary. All materials provided.
Every Forgotten Skillz event is built around learning by doing. Whether you are trying something for the first time or building on skills you already have, our programs invite you to experiment, ask questions, work with real materials, and discover new ways of looking at the natural and human world.
Explore the calendar above to find upcoming Forgotten Skillz workshops and events throughout Long Island.