Singing bowls

In the making process, first the various composition of metals as raw materials (copper, tin, zinc, iron, lead, gold and silver) are melted in furnace, depending on manufacturing needs such as for the making of bronze singing bowls or for seven metal singing bowls. The hot melted metal is removed from the furnace and poured into dice to prepare a metal mould for the various sizes and weights.

Then, the round metal moulds are cut into round metal discs in needed size and thickness. After that, these discs are hand beaten or hammered, after precise measurement and categorized for weight and sized bowls. Regarding the hand hammering process of singing bowls, 4 to 5 metal discs are piled up, one upon the other, and then heated to red hot. The red hot metal sheets are hammered by a group of expert artisans, as long as the heat remains in metal, and then again processed to red heating, for a continuous beating process.

This heating and beating of the bundled and piled up metal discs continues until a desired shape and size is formed. (That is why the hammered or beaten singing bowls will be proportionately different in a size and diameter with each individual singing bowl.) During the hammering process of these singing bowls, the metal disc can only be hammered during the time of being red hot, while it remains soft and flexible. Because when the metal gets colder, it will loose its softness and flexibility, which in turn makes the metal brittle and thus the bowl could be ruined. The reason behind this intensive working process is that the metal content (bronze or seven metals mixture) is very sensitive to heat and gets harder when it looses its hot temperature and will get cracks and breaks.

After completion of shaping the desired bowls, the individual work will start. At this stage, every bowl is brought into uniform shape and size, and once more, this can only be done during the red burning and heating and beating process. After finalizing the shape and size, more hammering is done for a final fine tuning and shaping of the singing bowls. The individual singing bowls are then chiselled and scoured for the finishing touch, at the inside and outside.