Caring for Your Namaste Nook Finds

Sandalwood is a dense, oily wood, and its fragrance comes from oils held inside the bead. Those oils are also what you are protecting.

• Do not wash sandalwood. Water and soap pull oil out of the wood and dull both the scent and the surface. Wipe with a dry or barely damp soft cloth if it needs it.
• Handling is good for it. The natural oils from your hands are close to what the wood already contains, and regular use tends to deepen the colour and sheen over time.
• If the scent has faded, that is normal with age and does not mean the bead has failed. Do not attempt to restore it by applying fragrance oils, perfume, or essential oils — these can stain the wood unevenly and will migrate into the cord and tassel.
• Keep it out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources. Both dry the wood and can cause fine surface cracking.
• Store in a cloth pouch or a closed box rather than in open air, which slows the loss of fragrance.

Red sandalwood is a different wood from the fragrant white sandalwood above, and it behaves differently. It is prized for its deep red-brown colour rather than its scent, and it is that colour you are protecting.

• Keep it dry. Red sandalwood's colour can transfer when wet, particularly on newer beads and particularly onto light fabric. Remove it before water, and do not store it pressed against pale silk or cotton.
• Do not wash, soak, or use soap. Dry-wipe with a soft cloth.
• Expect the colour to change with time and handling. Deepening or gentle lightening with wear is characteristic of the wood, not a defect.
• Direct sunlight will fade it. Store it away from windowsills and open shelves in bright rooms.

Tulsi beads are light, comparatively soft, and more porous than sandalwood or ebony. They are the most water-sensitive wood in the collection.

• Never wash or soak tulsi. It swells, then dries unevenly, and the bead holes can split. Keep it away from steam and humidity as well.
• Dry-wipe only, with a soft cloth, and only when needed.
• Tulsi darkens with wear. A new pale strand and a strand worn daily for two years will not look alike, and that is the material behaving normally.
• Raw and polished tulsi differ. Raw or rustic-cut beads have an open, unsealed surface that picks up oils and darkens faster, and their edges can catch on knitwear. Polished beads have a closed surface, resist marking better, and slide more easily. Treat raw tulsi as the more delicate of the two.
• Because tulsi is a light wood, its beads are easier to crack under impact than stone. Don't leave a strand where it can be knocked off a hard surface.

Karungali is a dense, hard, naturally dark wood. It is the most physically durable wood we carry, but density is not the same as being waterproof.

• Dry-wipe with a soft cloth. Do not soak, wash, or use household cleaners or polish.
• Its density means it takes a smooth, almost stone-like finish. With regular handling that surface tends to develop a soft sheen.
• If the surface ever looks chalky or grey, that is usually dryness rather than damage. A light buff with a dry cotton cloth is the conservative response. Resist the urge to oil it — most household and furniture oils are wrong for beads and will wick into the cord.
• Avoid prolonged direct sun and dry heat, which can cause fine checking in any dense wood.

Rudraksha are seeds, not stones or wood, and their deep natural ridges and hollows are the whole point of their appearance — and the whole difficulty of cleaning them.

• Dust settles in the grooves. A dry, soft-bristled brush — a clean, soft toothbrush is ideal — worked gently over the surface is the right tool. Do it dry.
• Do not soak rudraksha. Water sits in the ridges and inside the seed, dries slowly, and can encourage the seed to soften, split, or develop mould. Remove before showering and swimming.
• If a bead does get wet, dry it immediately with a cloth and let the strand air-dry fully, flat and away from direct heat, before wearing or storing it.
• Some traditions involve oiling rudraksha. If you choose to do this, know that oil will also travel into the cord and the knots and will shorten the life of the stringing. Use very little, apply it to the beads with a cloth rather than pouring, and expect to restring sooner.
• Natural variation in size, colour, ridge depth and shape between beads is inherent to seeds and is not a flaw.

Tiger eye is a hard, polished stone with a fibrous internal structure that produces its shifting bands of light. Of the bead materials here, stone is the most tolerant of cleaning and the least tolerant of impact.

• A soft cloth, lightly dampened with water, is enough for the beads. Dry them immediately and completely afterwards.
• Even though the stone tolerates a damp wipe, the cord does not. Keep water off the knots, the guru bead and the tassel. Wipe bead by bead rather than running the whole strand under a tap.
• Skip ultrasonic cleaners, steam, jewellery dips and household cleaning products. These are formulated for metal settings, not for strung stone on cord.
• Polished stone scratches other polished stone. Store a tiger eye strand in its own pouch rather than loose in a drawer or jewellery box with metal and other stones.
• Cosmetics, sunscreen, perfume and hair product will build a film on polished stone and soak into cord. Put the mala on last, after those have dried.

A seven-chakra strand is a mixed-material piece: a run of one main stone with an accent section of several different stones. Mixed strands are only as robust as their softest and most porous component, which is not always obvious by looking.

• Care for the whole strand at the level of its most delicate bead. When you cannot identify every stone in the accent section, treat the strand as if one of them is porous and soft — which, on most mixed strands, one of them is.
• The conservative method: a dry or barely damp soft cloth, bead by bead, dried immediately. Do not submerge the strand.
• Never soak a mixed strand in water, salt, salt water, or any cleaning solution. Salt is abrasive, it is corrosive to metal spacers and findings, and it degrades cord. Some stones are also damaged by prolonged water contact.
• Strong or prolonged sunlight fades some coloured stones permanently. Store mixed strands in a pouch or box rather than displayed on a bright shelf.
• Where a strand arrived with a gem identification card or laboratory report, keep that document with the piece. It is the record of what the material is, and it is worth more than any memory of the purchase.

Clear and white stone beads show everything: fingerprints, cosmetic residue, and the dulling film that builds up from lotion and sunscreen. They need attention more often than dark beads, not more aggressively.

• A soft dry cloth, used regularly, does most of the work. Frequent light dusting beats occasional heavy cleaning.
• If a damp wipe is needed, use plain water on the cloth rather than on the strand, work bead by bead, and dry immediately. Keep moisture away from cord, knots and tassel.
• No ultrasonic cleaners, no steam, no jewellery dip, no salt, no household cleaners.
• Care advice for pale stone depends on which mineral it actually is — different clear and white minerals differ substantially in hardness and in how they respond to water, heat and sunlight. Where a specific strand's mineral is documented on its product page, follow that. Where it is not yet documented, use the conservative dry-cloth method above and ask us before doing anything more.

Included here because customers frequently ask about it. Lava stone is not part of the current Namaste Nook collection.

Lava and volcanic stone beads are highly porous — that open, pitted surface is the material's defining characteristic. Porosity means the bead absorbs and holds whatever touches it: water, oils, fragrance, soap. Dry brushing is the usual approach; soaking is generally avoided because the interior takes a long time to dry. Because these beads are commonly used with fragrance oils, they also tend to hold scent long after the wearer has moved on from it, and applied oils will travel into the cord.

This is the part that determines how long a mala lasts, and it is the part most care advice ignores.

• Cord is consumable. On a mala worn regularly, the stringing is expected to need replacing long before the beads do. Restringing is normal maintenance, not a repair of a defect.
• Watch the guru bead and the join. The guru bead and the point where the tassel is attached carry the most stress. Fraying, visible thinning, or a knot that has worked loose there is the signal to stop wearing the strand and have it restrung — well before it breaks somewhere inconvenient.
• Knots between beads are structural. On a knotted strand they stop the beads grinding against each other and keep the beads from scattering if the cord parts. If knots have loosened or slid, the strand needs attention.
• The tassel wants combing, not washing. Separate the strands with your fingers or a wide-tooth comb, working from the bottom up. Don't wet it. If it has flattened from storage, hanging the mala for a day or two usually lets it fall back out.
• Store it hanging or coiled loosely, not knotted. A mala left balled up in a pocket or bag develops permanent kinks in the cord and tangles in the tassel. Hang it, or coil it loosely into a pouch.
• Oils and fragrance shorten cord life. This is the trade-off with any oiling practice. It is your choice to make — just plan for restringing sooner.
• Elastic bracelets are a special case. Elastic cord relaxes and eventually fails with time, heat and stretching, regardless of how carefully it is treated. Roll a bracelet on and off rather than pulling it hard over your hand, and treat visible thinning as the cue to restring.

Silk is strong when dry and considerably weaker when wet, and it does not forgive heat.

• Professional cleaning is the safe default for pure silk scarves and dupattas, especially the fine ones and anything with a woven metallic border.
• If you hand wash, do it in cool water with a detergent made for silk or wool, move the piece gently rather than rubbing or wringing, and keep the time in water short. Never use bleach or a product containing an optical brightener.
• Never put silk in a dryer. Press the water out between towels, then dry flat away from direct sun and away from radiators.
• Iron on the lowest setting, on the reverse, while very slightly damp, with a pressing cloth between iron and fabric. Silk scorches quickly and the mark is permanent.
• Keep perfume, hairspray, deodorant and alcohol-based products off silk — they can leave rings that will not come out. Dress first, scent second, scarf last.
• Water spots on silk are a known frustration. A single droplet can dry with a visible ring, which is why spot-treating silk is often less successful than cleaning the whole piece.
• Store silk loosely folded or rolled, in cloth rather than plastic. Silk needs to breathe, and long storage on a sharp fold sets a crease line.

Cotton is the most forgiving fibre in the collection, and the everyday cotton pieces were made to be used.

• Most plain and woven cotton takes cool or lukewarm hand washing well, and many pieces tolerate a gentle machine cycle. Check the product page for the specific piece before machining anything.
• Wash new coloured cotton separately the first few times. Deep saturated colours commonly release some dye at first — this settles down.
• Hot water and hot drying are what shrink cotton and dull colour. Cool water and low or no heat keep a piece looking new far longer.
• Line drying suits cotton well. Dry coloured cotton in shade rather than in strong sun, which fades it.
• Cotton takes a hot iron comfortably, and pressing while slightly damp gives the best result.
• Fringes and tassels tangle in a machine even when the cloth itself is fine. If a cotton piece has them, hand washing is the safer route.

A blend does not average the care of its two fibres. It takes the care of the more delicate one. A cotton–silk shawl is cared for as silk, not as cotton.

• Treat blended pieces as dry-clean or careful cool hand wash. Cotton's tolerance does not raise the temperature the silk content can survive.
• Blends can shrink unevenly, because the two fibres respond to water and heat at different rates. That unevenness cannot be reversed by pressing.
• No dryer, and no hot iron. Press on low, on the reverse, with a cloth.
• Where a blend's exact composition isn't stated, assume the delicate fibre is present in a meaningful proportion and care for it accordingly.
• Reversible blended pieces have two finished faces and no hidden side to test on. Test any spot treatment at a hem or corner first — on both faces.

On a woven piece the pattern is built into the cloth rather than applied to the surface, so the pattern will not wash off. The risks are structural instead.

• Wet cloth is heavy, and a large woven wrap held by one corner while wet will distort along the grain. Support the whole piece when handling it wet, and dry it flat where you can.
• Loose weaves and open weaves snag on rings, watches, jewellery and rough surfaces. A pulled thread is much harder to remedy than a stain.
• If a thread does pull, don't cut it. Ease it gently back along the weave from the reverse with a blunt needle, or leave it and ask us.
• Reversible weaves are two-faced by design — inspect and treat both sides.
• Woven metallic and jacquard borders don't like heat. Iron around them, on low, on the reverse, with a pressing cloth.

This covers block-printed, hand-stamped, mordant-stamped, batik and machine-printed pieces. The surface carries the design, so the surface is what you are protecting.

• Wash cool, wash separately, and wash the first time on its own. Hand-applied colour is more likely to release dye early in a piece's life than commercially finished cloth.
• Test for colourfastness before any wet treatment: press a damp white cloth firmly against an inconspicuous spot. If colour transfers, stop — spot clean only, or take it to a professional cleaner and tell them it is a hand-printed textile.
• Don't soak printed textiles, and don't leave them sitting wet in a heap. Extended time in water is what lifts and blurs surface colour.
• Skip bleach, stain removers and detergents with brighteners entirely. They lift hand-applied colour far faster than they lift stains.
• Dry in shade. Direct sun fades printed colour noticeably faster than it fades woven colour.
• Iron on the reverse. A hot iron applied directly to a printed surface can gloss, smear or set it.
• Slight irregularity in a hand-stamped or batik design — a repeat that doesn't align perfectly, variation in colour depth across the cloth — is characteristic of the method, not damage.

Embroidery sits on top of the base cloth and takes different care from it. The threads, and anything stitched into them, set the limit.

• Spot clean where possible. For most embroidered pieces this is the right first response, and often the only one needed.
• Where a full clean is needed, professional cleaning is the safe route, particularly for heavyweight embroidery, dense stitching and mixed-material work.
• If hand washing an embroidered piece, use cool water, support the piece fully so the weight of the water doesn't hang on the stitching, don't rub the embroidered areas, and never wring.
• Embroidery threads and base cloth can shrink at different rates, which puckers the ground permanently. This is the most common way an embroidered piece is damaged.
• Iron embroidered pieces face down on a towel, on the reverse, so the stitches sink into the towel rather than being crushed flat.
• Metallic and gold-work threads should not be pressed directly, or machine washed. Keep the iron off them.
• Store embroidered textiles flat or rolled rather than folded on the stitching, and avoid stacking heavy items on top of them.

Some pieces in the collection are modern woven synthetics or synthetic blends — sometimes with metallic filament — chosen deliberately for a texture, drape or transparency that natural fibre does not give in the same way. They are not lesser materials, but they behave differently, and heat is the main hazard.

• Heat is the real risk. Synthetic fibre can melt, glaze or permanently shine under an iron that cotton would shrug off. Use the lowest setting, always on the reverse, always with a pressing cloth — or steam from a distance instead of pressing.
• Never tumble dry. Line dry away from radiators, heaters and direct sun.
• Cool hand wash, or professional cleaning where the piece has hand-tied tassels, metallic thread or fine open weave.
• Metallic filament can be scratchy, snag-prone and prone to catching on jewellery. Store these pieces on their own rather than folded against fine silk.
• Fine, near-transparent synthetics are easy to snag and hard to repair. Handle by the body of the cloth, not by the edge.
• Hand-finished tassels and knotted ends on these pieces are the most fragile element — comb them out with fingers, and don't put them through a machine.

Most of the life of a worn textile happens outside the wash, and that is where most of the damage happens too.

• Wearable textiles rarely need washing as often as people assume. Airing a piece overnight resolves most of what a wash would, with none of the risk.
• Put a scarf on last, after perfume, hairspray, sunscreen and cosmetics have fully dried.
• Rings, watch clasps, bag hardware, brooches and coat zips are the usual cause of pulls. Be deliberate when putting a wrap on over a coat.
• Don't store scarves on wire or thin hangers. They crease along the bar and, on fine or heavy pieces, the fold line can become permanent. Roll them, or fold them loosely, or hang over a wide rail.
• Fold larger wraps along a different line each time you store them, so a single crease doesn't set in.
• Pull a thread rather than the whole piece if something catches — stop, unhook it, and ease the thread back rather than tugging free.

Decorative textiles get more physical wear than wearable ones, and the wear is different: sunlight, friction, food, feet.

• Pillow covers — remove the insert before cleaning; never clean the cover on the cushion. Where a cover is embroidered, mirrored or has applied trim, spot clean or clean professionally. Where it is plain woven cotton, a cool gentle wash is usually fine. Rotate covers so one doesn't sit in a sunbeam year-round, which fades one side only.
• Tea towels — these are made to be used and washed. Wash cool or warm, wash new coloured towels separately at first, and skip fabric softener, which coats the fibres and makes cotton less absorbent. Tasselled ends last longer if you keep them out of a hot dryer.
• Rugs and mats — shake out or vacuum on a low setting rather than washing where possible. For synthetic-fibre mats, spot clean with cool water and blot dry; keep them away from heat and don't tumble dry. Use a non-slip underlay on hard floors, and rotate the mat periodically so it wears and fades evenly.
• For all of these: blot spills immediately, from the outside of the spill inwards, rather than rubbing. Rubbing drives the stain into the weave and can distort it.

Clasps, spacers, links, charms and the small metal parts on strung pieces.

• Wipe metal dry after wearing. Skin oils, perspiration and humidity are the main causes of tarnish and corrosion, and a dry cloth after each wear does more than any occasional deep clean.
• Store metal dry, in a closed pouch or box, ideally with the air kept still. Open dishes and bathroom shelves are the worst places for it.
• Put jewellery on after perfume, lotion and hairspray, and take it off before swimming, bathing and cleaning.
• Where metal is attached to beads, wood, seed or textile, do not use metal polish, dips or ultrasonic cleaners. These are made for solid metal items. On a mixed piece, they get into porous beads and cord and can't be rinsed out.
• Where the exact metal or plating is not documented, treat it as plated and clean it as gently as possible. Polishing compound removes plating permanently, and there is no way back.
• Check clasps and jump rings periodically. A clasp that has begun to spring open is the cause of most lost pieces.

Incense holders are working objects. They accumulate ash and resin, and how you clean them depends on what they're made of.

• Let it cool completely. Always, before cleaning or moving. Ash holds heat longer than it looks like it should.
• Bamboo and wood holders — wipe out ash with a dry cloth or brush. Don't soak them and don't put them in a dishwasher; bamboo splits and warps when it is wetted and dried repeatedly. If a carved surface has ash in the detail, use a dry soft brush. A little scorching around the stick hole is normal with use.
• Ceramic holders — these tolerate water. Wash in warm water with mild soap, or wipe out. Dry fully before reuse. Ceramic chips at the rim if knocked against a hard sink, so wash it separately rather than in a stack of dishes.
• Metal holders — wipe ash out dry, and dry the piece thoroughly if it is washed. Ash absorbs moisture from the air and will pit or discolour metal if left sitting in the tray.
• Resin and dhoop residue is stickier than stick-incense ash and can bake onto a surface. Wipe the holder while it is still slightly warm — but never hot — when residue lifts most easily.
• Burn on a heat-tolerant surface. Ash trays and holders transmit more heat to the surface underneath than most people expect, and heat marks on wood furniture are permanent.
• Empty ash regularly rather than letting it build. Beyond appearance, accumulated ash can block airflow at the base of a stick and cause uneven burning.

Double-wall borosilicate is strong against heat but not against sudden changes in it, and the sealed cavity between the two walls cannot be dried out if water ever gets inside it.

• Thermal shock is the real risk, not heat. Borosilicate handles hot liquid well. What breaks it is a fast swing — boiling water into a vessel straight from a cold cupboard, or a hot vessel set down on cold stone or plunged into cold water. Warm it through with a little hot water first, and let it cool on a cloth or trivet rather than on a cold hard surface.
• Hand wash unless the piece is documented as dishwasher safe. Dishwasher heat and detergent are hard on lids, gaskets and any coated or bamboo-look component, and on a double-wall vessel a failed seal lets water into the cavity where it can never be dried out. Where the product page doesn't state dishwasher safety, treat it as hand wash only.
• No abrasives, ever. Steel wool, scouring pads and gritty powders scratch borosilicate, and scratches are exactly where thermal stress concentrates and cracks begin. Use a soft sponge or a soft bottle brush. For tea staining, a soak in warm water with a little bicarbonate of soda lifts it without scrubbing.
• Handle the strainer separately. Take a stainless-steel strainer out before washing the vessel and wash it on its own — the mesh traps leaf and wants a soft brush and a rinse pushed through from the outside in. Dry it completely before it goes back; a damp strainer shut inside a closed bottle is what causes odour and staining.
• Lids, seals and gaskets are consumable. Lift the sealing ring out periodically, wash underneath it, and dry both parts fully before reassembling — trapped moisture under a gasket is the usual source of a musty smell. Don't soak lids that combine plastic with another material, and don't store a leak-resistant lid clamped shut, so the seal isn't held compressed.
• Empty and dry between uses. Leaves left standing stain glass and mesh quickly, and liquid left sitting is the single most common cause of a permanently marked infuser.
• Don't use on a stovetop, over an open flame, or in a microwave or freezer unless the piece is specifically documented for it. Double-wall construction in particular is not built for either extreme.

Handmade rag paper is made from cotton fibre rather than wood pulp, and it is usually lightly sized or not sized at all. That is what gives it its softness and tooth — and it is also why it is thirsty, and why almost every rule here comes back to keeping it dry.

• Keep it dry. Never wash, sponge or damp-wipe paper. Water cockles the sheet, lifts the surface, and can carry any ink present into a bloom that will not lift. Dust a cover with a dry soft cloth or a soft brush, nothing more.
• Humidity does the slow damage. Damp air warps covers, ripples pages and, over time, brings mould and foxing — the small rust-coloured spots that appear on paper stored in a damp room. Keep paper in a dry, ventilated room, not a basement, bathroom or unheated garage.
• Store flat, and don't stack heavy things on top. Pressure over months sets a permanent bow in the cover and crushes the deckled edge. Standing upright on a shelf is fine if it isn't leaning.
• Sunlight yellows and embrittles paper, faster than most people expect and permanently. Keep it off sunlit shelves and windowsills.
• Metal fittings — latches, clasps, corners — want a gentle hand. Open and close them rather than forcing or springing them, and never wet them: a tarnishing or corroding fitting will mark the paper it sits against, and that stain migrates into the sheet.
• Test your pen on the back page first. Unsized and lightly sized handmade paper is absorbent, so some inks feather along the fibre or bleed through to the next sheet. A pencil, a ballpoint, or a fineliner allowed to dry is usually happier on rag paper than a wet fountain pen or a marker.
• Don't store paper in plastic. Sealed plastic traps humidity against the sheet, which is exactly the condition mould wants. Cloth, an open shelf or a paper wrap is better.
• Variation in thickness, tone, deckle edge and the small fibres and flecks visible in the sheet are characteristic of handmade paper, not faults. Sheets from the same batch will not be identical.

Objects kept for meaning as much as for appearance deserve care that respects both.

• Dust regularly with a dry, soft cloth or a soft brush. Regular light dusting is far kinder to a surface than periodic scrubbing.
• Identify the material before you introduce any liquid. Wood, ceramic, stone, metal and mixed-material objects each want something different, and a cleaner that suits one will damage another.
• Where the material or finish isn't documented, dry-dust only and ask us before going further.
• Keep objects out of direct sunlight where possible. Sun fades pigment, dries wood and degrades applied finishes.
• Give a piece a stable place to sit. Most breakage happens to objects kept on narrow edges, near doors, or where they get moved often.
• When an object is part of a home practice, handling it with clean, dry hands is the practical courtesy that also happens to be the best conservation advice.

Mirror-work bags, mirrored textiles and any piece combining cloth with hard elements are the most demanding items to care for, because a single method has to suit every component.

• The most fragile component sets the rule for the whole piece. On a mirror-work cotton bag, that is the mirrors and the stitching that holds them, not the cotton.
• Spot clean only, using a barely damp cloth on the cloth areas, and keep moisture away from the mirror settings and stitching.
• Never machine wash, never soak, never wring a mirrored or mixed-material piece. The stitching that holds each mirror is what fails first.
• Don't iron directly on mirrors, sequins or applied hardware. Press around them, on the reverse, with a cloth.
• Store these pieces flat and unstacked, with nothing heavy on top. Pressure over time is what pops settings loose.
• If a mirror or an element does come loose, keep it. A missing component is much harder to match than to reattach.
• Bags with structure — a zip, a lining, a frame — should be stored lightly stuffed with tissue or cloth rather than flat-packed, so the shape and the seams don't crease permanently.

These four apply to almost everything on this page, and getting them right removes most of the need for cleaning at all.

• Moisture — damp is the single most common cause of avoidable damage across every category here: mould on porous seeds, wood and paper, corrosion on metal, mildew and staining on textiles. Bathrooms, unheated storage and closed plastic containers all hold moisture. Store in a dry room, in cloth or an open-breathing box.
• Fragrance and oils — concentrated fragrance oils and attars are formulated to be potent and persistent. Treat them as staining agents around your other pieces. Keep bottles upright, stored away from textiles, paper and beads, and cap them firmly; oil migrates through a loose cap and a spill on silk or on cord is usually permanent. Let applied fragrance dry fully on skin before putting on a scarf or a mala.
• Household chemicals — bleach, ammonia cleaners, alcohol-based sprays, hand sanitiser, acetone and silver dips will damage nearly everything on this page. The exposure that catches people out is indirect: cleaning a shelf and setting the object back before the surface is dry.
• Light — sunlight fades dyed textiles, printed colour, red woods and coloured stones, and yellows paper. A rotating display, or storing in a drawer between uses, preserves colour that a sunlit shelf will take out in a season.
• Air — plastic bags and airtight boxes trap humidity against a piece. Cloth pouches, cotton bags and tissue are better for long storage of nearly everything except metal, which prefers dry and still.
• Separation — store hard things away from soft things. Beads scratch beads, metal snags silk, mirrors catch on knitwear. One pouch per piece is not fussiness; it is the cheapest preservation there is.