Singing Bowls
Singing bowl making workshops
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and
custom made singing bowls made to order for your own journey and frequency
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Singing bowls are ancient instruments used for healing and meditation, creating altered states of consciousness and deep relaxation.
The Process of crafting them - if approached in the right way following an ancient tradition - can become an alchemical journey of deep healing, alignment and discovery
Background story:
A few years ago I had the privilege of meeting a coppersmith and singing-bowl maker Ton Akkermans from Holland who has been teaching me the art of making my own singing bowls and healing instruments which now accompany me on musical meditations, sound-weaving concerts and in sound healing sessions.
Ton has worked as a copper- and blacksmith most of his life. He recalled his experience as a blacksmith in other lifetimes and cultures, creating singing bowls and metal instruments in ancient Tibet. His memories as a master bowl-maker in Tibet showed him how each bowl was made very intentionally in deep meditative work - each for a very specific purpose - be it to accompany one monk on his spiritual journey of awakening or for a specified use in a temple or village. Some of the larger and very powerful bowls were hammered by several master craftsmen - maybe even over generations - only at certain times - imbuing them with special vibrational tasks for different times.
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Ton was guided to start crafting singing bowls and other healing metal instruments that specifically vibrate with frequencies needed for this Time now, which now he dedicates his life to. He gives bowl making workshops, sound healing concerts and sound workshops with his many handcrafted instruments. He also teaching about re-tuning the old bowls that have been brought from the east to the west for new purposes in this new time we are in now.
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I have trained with Ton for many years now and he has asked me to assist with the teaching of the crafting of bowls and sound instruments. A couple of years ago I have been joined in the bowl making passion by Quentin Cowen and we have started a bowl-making forge, project and school together nr Salisbury
The Forge:
Quentin Cowen established the forge, which we share, near Salisbury for the very purpose of crafting the bowls, gongs and other healing metal instruments in the deeply meditative way taught by Ton, carrying vibrations for the evolution of consciousness at this time on the Earth.We are now offering bowl making workshops at different times for those who are called to craft their own singing bowl or bell for their journey…We have also been taking commissions for making a bowl, bell, cymbal, gong or sound bars, tubular bells… for your journey, your home, your land or any purpose that carries the vibration of alignment to what is needed at this time on the Earth:
See the picture journey of one of my commission bowls, which is also the journey of you making your own bowl: http://www.dropbox.com/
Workshops:
2012
January 27th & 28th 2012 To sound the ‘Tone’ for 2012 and beyond at: Little Durnford nr Old Sarum/Salisbury at our own forge facilitated by Gabriella and Quentin, £150 non residential:
an opportunity to forge into physical and alchemical manifestation our dreams and intentions for 2012 and beyond through the crafting of a small singing bowl.
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April 29 - May 3 2012 with Ton Akkermans: a longer in depth 5day optionat: Hawkwood college, Stroud http://www.hawkwoodcollege.co.uk/ for those wishing to enter more deeply into the craft or make larger projects; (assisted by Carolina Schomper, Quentin and Gabriella) for more information about this course, go to: http://www.hawkwoodcollege.co.uk/courses/Create_A_Singing_Bowl_April
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May 6/ 7 2012 two day workshop with Ton Akkermans and Carolina Schomper at: Little Durnford nr Old Sarum/Salisbury at our own forge assisted by Gabriella and Quentin (see more information below): £200 non residential
August 4th/5th (sat/sun): ’make your own singing-bowl’ workshop to create an alchemical vessel and frequency for this time
at: Little Durnford nr Old Sarum/Salisbury at our own forge facilitated by Gabriella and Quentin, £150 non residential:
Singing-Bowl-Making Workshop
You are invited to a craft workshop, where you will have the opportunity to make your own singing bowl.
The workshop often begins with an evening concert of singing bowls, gongs and other hand-crafted metal instruments . Here you will have a valuable preparatory opportunity to hear, and enter into, the myriad sounds and resonances of different instruments and their metals, prior to the workshop itself.
Throughout the workshop you will scribe, cut, shape,fire and sink your own bowl. Throughout these processes you will be guided not only in the physical, but also in the metaphysical implications of making a singing bowl. Modern science has come full circle to rediscover the wisdom of the ages - that all matter is in essence, pure vibration, and that intention colours form. You will be assisted in holding a focused intention as you beat the metal, in order to imprint the work with an appropriate vibration. This act of bringing consciousness to how we perceive sound, and our developing sensitivity to resonance, will underpin all that we do.
The workshop will come to completion with the individual initiation and tuning of the instruments that have been created.This is a rare opportunity to enter into, under the experienced eye of a Master Craftsman, an authentic alchemical process, whereby what outwardly appears to be a transformation of base metal, is in effect, a transformation of ourselves.
All equipment provided
& materials extra
Home-cooked organic lunch and refreshments provided
bring suitable outdoor working clothes
Ton Akkermans is a coppersmith, sound therapist and healer. He has been working 18 years in child psychiatry as an Antroposophical guide and taught Arts in a Steiner School. He also has been working as a restoration and Coppersmith crafting many sound instruments. He teaches children to empower themselves through the process of forging. He gives lessons on the HU colleges in Amersfoort, art and coaching. He is the founder of Foundation Odebaer, a Spiritual Centre, in which he is a very active member.
http://www.be-foundation.com/index.html?page=77?=1
TESTEMONIALS:
‘It was an amazing 2 days - thank you all so much for all the work you put into getting it up and running. My journey had its ups and downs - which is life !- and now I can look at, feel, sense, hear, taste that journey as my bowl and I live on together.’ P.C.Chichester UK
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‘The Bowl’
Making a singing bowl with Quentin Cowen and Gabriella Kapfer
“Held within the circle of Time, we spiral into the depths of experience to find our heart’s song. Spiraling outward again we journey to touch the edges of our world, to meet another song, from the heart of Life”
“The Bowl” is an inspirational creative project, arising out of the work of craftsman and bowl maker Ton Akkerman. His teaching is something that defies simple description, weaving the ancient principles of a long-held tradition of bowl-making with the powerfully vibrant influences of these extraordinary times. He has taken the art of singing bowl making, as practiced in the East for centuries and originating in the Tibetan monasteries, and brought it forward into our times, carrying on this ancient lineage but giving it a new life that is poignant and vital for our times, as so many new impulses stream into our lives, stirring us to expand the boundaries of our understanding.
When we make our first singing bowl, it is our personal bowl. In my experience the purpose of this bowl is to assist us in finding our own coherence, so that we can begin to really live from a place of being truly ourselves. My second bowl was a totally different experience, in that from the beginning it was clearly a bowl with work of its own to do; it came through me but wasn’t ‘mine’ in the same way as the first. It was a bowl born alongside other bowls that appeared to be deeply connected to each other and to eternal themes like compassion, wisdom, transformation, unity …….
Working to make this bowl, I experienced a wonderful sense of ease, of selfless connection. It struck me very powerfully that these bowls are not just beautiful forms or musical instruments …but they are living beings. An experience that is hard to describe until you experience the bowls’ magic. Taking them home brings yet more magic, as we realize the work of transformation they come to do with and through us, and as we see changes taking place in our lives that reflect the intentions of the work we have done. The making of the bowl is just a beginning !
I believe that this project is incredibly important, but mainly just incredible! as it offers a powerful and unique opportunity for self-fulfillment and service in the same breath.
It gives us the experience of ourselves as makers, but also as alchemists; as we put the metal in the fire that refines and releases and softens, as we stand by while it cools until its ready to be shaped and hammered into the form of the bowl, spiraling into the center of the bowl with our hammer, into the core of our individual truths, then spiraling out again to touch the edge where inner truth meets the greater reality encompassing it. Always holding our original intention in mind as we work, we also allow openness for change, for the formative forces that work through us from beyond our own preconceptions, to inform our work. After we have polished and refined the finished bowl, we then get to finally sound its note within the circle of participants, and create a field of sound with the other bowls that have been made. It is a humbling thought that these bowls will live beyond us to bring their gifts…
Perhaps most importantly in this process, and hopefully, we are given the remarkable opportunity to experience ourselves as facilitators in one of the most extraordinary moments in human history: (this moment, every moment). The making of a singing bowl is an awe-inspiring process and I feel deeply thankful for having been called to take part in the project in its infancy.
I am also deeply thankful for the insightful guidance of Gabriella and Quentin and Heather who carry these workshops in their individual ways with such nurturing warmth and care and closeness of attention, and who are bringing Ton’s original initiative closer to home for us, as well as taking it a step further, into a new phase …they are true wisdom teachers of the best kind, as well as honest loving friends.
“An empty bowl
Has been left at the foot of the tree
To receive our tears
And offer them up to life again
a breeze stirs ..
the fire blows warm
in a breath
Love streams into the waiting bowl
And pours itself out again
Making from our tears
A mantle of pearls
For our hearts to wear to the ball …”
C.P. xx