Rustnstuff: Meditation Bowls

Showing posts with label Meditation Bowls. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2025

Friday, October 2, 2020

Mini meditation bowls

I offered to make Graham 20 mini meditation bowls for the members of his meditation group. The group is celebrating 10 years of meditation - pretty impressive. The bowls are made from 40mm squares of silver-plated brass as you can see from the edges of the stack of 22 above.

The metal was cut from two small sandwich trays. I stamped them with the tree of life symbol before cutting - easier to hold the metal when stamping.

Squares cut, corners trimmed and bowls formed in the hydraulic press.

Bowls ground and polished - so reflective that they are picking up all the colours in the workshop.

The bowls can be held in the palm of one's hand as a focus for meditation; or can be placed on a table or floor with or without a small written word in them again to guide the focus of one's meditation.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Meditation bowl and leaf words

I managed to finish the larger bowl and larger leaves for the inspiration-meditation set I was commissioned to do. As you can see from the photo above I hammered out two bowls to give the client a choice. The bigger bowl is 185mm in diameter and the smaller one is about 165mm in diameter. Both are about 40-50mm deep.

A couple more photos of the bowls with leaves in place; one with a chosen leaf out of the bowl; and a single word leaf.

And a few process photos. Each bowl took about 9-10 cycles of hammering.

I was pleased with the outcome and hope the client is as well.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Friday right?

Fiona and I try to set aside Friday as a day in the studio. Obviously we grab other times as we can during the week; but creating on Friday has been a goal for many years now. Today started out that way; but soon became quite peoplely so the time available was limited.

I did manage to get an order packed and posted; and started on a commission of a larger meditation oriented bowl with custom words as seen in the first photo.

The process of making vessels and leaves, as some folk know, tends to start with cutting up salvaged silver-plated trays or place mats. For this commission I'm using good quality round Strachan placemats.

The centre of the bowl is stamped with Tree of Life symbols.

The leaf forms were stamped with the words and at the end of the day I had reached the stage of opening leaves.

Not a lot more will be done over the weekend as Fiona and I have a few engagements. Anyway I think what I achieved warrants homemade pizza and wine!!!!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Ready or not - for Open Studios

Tonight I was going to post on a beautiful surprise peace gift I received from one of our gifted fellow artists in our blog community; but the day (and indeed most of this week) has been given over to finalising the products and getting our studio-gallery (601 mvr) sorted for the first weekend of the Sunshine Coast Open Studios 2012 that starts tomorrow. So I'll post on the preparations today; and then post on that special gift on Sunday.

Fiona and I are better prepared this year in that we have a wider range of pieces that showcase the diversity of what we do; and we have enough stock to deal with any demand on the first couple of days. My work ranges from small hand formed jewellery pieces to the larger outdoor sculptural pieces. But I will let the photos give an insight into my work and presentation in 601 mvr. I would say most if not all the works on display are created from recycled materials - apart from jewellery findings.

Both Fiona and I are tired but we are feeling we have put in a good effort to share our studio space and our art forms with the public. We will see what tomorrow brings. Now off for a little sav. blanc and dinner.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Amulet boxes, talismans, personal and portable shrines

My interest in objects that might assist us in contemplation, reflection and meditation has led me to create a number of different beaten, formed and assembled metal items including: meditation bowls; incense burners; and personal shrines.

Barry Smith © Personal shrine - to the moon

I think my interest in personal and portable shrines, amulet boxes and talismans began a few years ago when our friends Boris and Richard showed us an amulet box they had purchased - which still had the sacred and secret objects still in the box - still wrapped and preserved in their sacredness. On a recent visit B&R shared more insights into this area of Tibetan personal portable shrines and amulet boxes (gau).

Barry Smith © Sacred content of a small simple Tibetan gau

Barry Smith © Aged, worn, simple and sacred gau

Barry Smith © Carved portable bone shrine with sacred words and symbols - front

Barry Smith © Carved portable shrine with sacred words and symbols - back

In our visit to NYC a household shrine and a portable shrine (below) were part of the exhibition in the Rubin Museum of Art which is dedicated to the art of the Himalayas including Tibet.

Barry Smith – Tibetan amulet box (gau) - Rubin Museum

Recently I have been fascinated Stregata's work on amulets and talismans; Gaby's small portable shrine; and Mairedodd's talismans. And Mairedodd (MJ) gave us the gift of such a beautiful talismanic piece. MJ's gift has many layers: the sacred tablet, the words stamped into the metal behind the tablet and words stamped onto the fabric. The piece has other symbols of spirit and enlightenment including the bell and the double ended crystal. And of course it has been personally crafted and energised by the giver.

What I love about the portable personal shrines is that the owner can take them on journeys with them - whether it be for pleasure, duty or business. Wherever they find themselves they can set up, and in some case open the shrine, and they have a small place of contemplation, reflection, mediation or prayer with them. They can create a sacred place wherever they are - in a room, a park, the woods, on a mountain trail, on the shores of the ocean etc. The portable shrine is a gateway to the inner self, a connection to hearth and kin and the spirit realm. The shrine can contain secret and sacred objects and messages (of spirit, love, peace, giving, enlightment) that are important to the owner and maybe have been given as wishes, prayers and protections for the owner. In themselves these portable personal shrines are unique personal and powerful.

So where is all this heading? I have been inspired by what has been shared with me and what I have seen to have a go at creating a small portable personal shrine.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Brights things for Christmas

When one gets into a bit of production mode it can feel a little less rewarding as you can feel you are just turning out multiples of objects. In part that is how I have felt over the last week or so. I have been creating enough pieces so if people ring and want to buy unique handmade gifts for Christmas there are enough pieces in the display cabinet for them to choose from.

However, given the one off recycled nature of the materials I work with I can often put a unique spin on things; and still feel good about the creative process. Testing bowl making with anodised aluminium without totally ruining the colour and soft metal has given me an energising challenge.

I have been making a few bowls for different purposes. And I have played with bowls made from the square and round.

Palm-handheld meditation bowls. Many of my palm-handheld meditation bowls have focal words stamped into the rim. Some are plain if people simply want to find the silence.