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For ten years an apprenticeship programme to become a Sounding Bowl maker ran from our workshop.

During this period around a dozen people studied with Tobias.  Five of them completed the course and graduated capable of making bowls indistinguishable from an original. Within a few years these makers, too will start to train others.

Could you make one of these?

Sounding Bowls are copyright through original intellectual property. We have trained five makers who are now working in the Austria, Ireland, the UK and the USA. New trainings will become available in due course but for the moment these five are the sole makers in the world. All our work goes out through this website portal, the shop page contains everything presently completed. New work is constantly coming online and you can commission any piece from any maker. Each of our makers is protected by the copyright and maintains standards that boost the work of our bowls worldwide.

All our pieces are amongst the highest quality wood turning anywhere in the world and the level of concentration and application that goes into each bowl is of the highest order, so the critical factor has been, not just the ability to master the most demanding techniques (for instance the base of our bowls is the thickness of a matchstick) … but also the ability to master your own self. Craftsmanship of this order is a meditation.

Apprenticeships typically lasted about one year. Completion of training lies in the ability to complete one of each of the six types of Sounding Bowl without further assistance and to a standard compatible with our own. During the training of these five apprentices standards went up across the board as the questions asked and new ideas brought by each new maker contributed to the understanding and execution of making this new musical instrument.

On completion of training successful apprentices gained a Journeyman Maker’s certificate and have set up as makers under the guidance of Tobias Kaye. On completion of 200 approved Sounding Bowls they will be granted Mastership certificates, take over independent quality control and possibly take on their own apprentices. Unitl that happens there is no existing apprenticeship program available.

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