Dragon Incense Burners

Holding it together

If insufficiently dried, a raw pot makes a sad noise shattering in the kiln as trapped water bursts out of the clay in 1,700-degree heat.

Fran Leyenberger of Lower Makefield has heard her share of exploding ceramics. The artist had been firing pottery for years and still was losing one out of four works as they baked.

She was learning the hard way. “I’m workshop-taught,” Leyenberger said. “People won’t tell you the secrets. It’s this great mystery. Workshops will.”

For years, while raising three children and moving from New England to Texas and back to the Northeast, Leyenberger drove everywhere she could find a pottery workshop. It was in such a setting that another participant clued her in to the use of liquid latex to achieve selective effects in her glazing.

While working with a local physics teacher on a raku firing, she made a breakthrough on the lost-pot problem.

“ ‘What if we took all these wet towels, and sealed all these lids?’ — and that’s how I get this consistency,” Leyenberger said, referring to the can filled with flammable organic material into which a hot, glazed pot is plunged. The suggestion to seal the can lid with damp towels was “a stroke of genius,” according to the potter.

Leyenberger grew up in Newport, R.I., well-primed for her career by the city’s heritage of fine art and, as a child, accompanying grownups to a shop that sold pottery blanks suitable for painting by the purchaser. “I was exposed to it from my grandparents dragging me around,” she said.

She became serious about art in high school. “You’re required to take all the art classes, but I’ve always gone straight back to clay. You can make anything out of clay,” she said.

At the College of William & Mary, Leyenberger took every art course available. When she and her husband, Chris, were bringing up their children, Seely, Whit and Elyse, she devoted more time to scenery shifting and costume design for high school productions.

“My kids did theater, and in Pennsbury (schools), if you have kids in the arts, you have to volunteer,” she said. “Once Elyse (graduated), it was a free-for-all for me.”

Three years ago, Leyenberger devoted herself to ceramics full time, entering her work in art shows throughout the region and developing a line of decorative and utilitarian pieces such as lamps and dishes. Tongue in cheek, she named her workplace Cracked Pots Studio and developed a website (www.franpots.com).

Dragon Incense Burner Reviews

2 1/2 stars : November 25, 2009

The product itself is heavy and seems sturdy enough. it’s well painted and detailed. but the hole is too big for the incense to stay in. and my product came with one of the horns broken off, not even painted, and stuffed inside the incense burner. the company was fair though and gave me a quick refund. if you have anything to place inside of the product to hold up the incense sticks this works rather well. just wish it wouldn’t of been broken, since i purchased this as a gift. but still not a terrible product not that great ether.

Worth it, if you like dragons, but…. : April 12, 2011

Firstly, I love dragons. I collect them, which is why this one spoke to me so strongly. It is sturdy and very attractive. However, I noticed two things straight away. The orientation of the incense in the stock photos does not mesh up with the real orientation. The hole is on the end where the dragon’s head would be with the lid in place, meaning the incense comes out of the ‘other’ end, unlike what the photos suggest. Also, the hole is the wrong size for most incense sticks. They tend to fall out, which causes them to burn out before reaching the end. If you can overlook those two minor flaws, this is a great burner.

Awesome Design : June 15, 2011

This incense burner has a lot of detail, and it looks really cool. However, it is better for those triangle incense cones rather than the stick incense. With the incense cones, you can put a cone inside, light it, and close the top, and the smoke will come out of the dragons mouth which looks really cool. However, with a incense stick, you must put the stick inside the burner (because there is no hole on the outside), but then you cannot close the top, so you have to burn the stick with the top off.

But I would definitely say buy it because it is cool, but then you should buy the incense cones to use instead of the sticks.

Very happy with this purchase : June 15, 2011

I like this dragon incense burner very much. Other reviewers have complained that the hole for incense sticks is too large, I would agree to that too. But I offer an easy fix to this. I use a small wax button that sticks to the inside of the box on top of the hole. Then I can simply poke the incense stick into the wax button and even allow the stick to protrude through the hole of the box, if necessary. I imagine any pliable sticky compound, like clay or silly putty would work just as well.

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