How Crystal Singing Bowls Are Made

When I was first setting up I Know This Girl, understanding the making process was incredibly important to me. I wanted to provide high-quality crystal singing bowls made from high-grade quartz for the best sound and longevity. To do that, I needed to understand how the bowls were crafted and the techniques that created the best products. 

From the beginning of building my own brand, I already knew quite a bit about crystal singing bowls as I had been working with a company that sold crystal tones alchemy bowls for three years. While I absolutely loved the bowls and they were a joy to play, their price point meant I couldn’t afford any of my own.

I believed that if we stripped singing bowls back to the element that was central to the sound and vibrations, quartz, then I could offer crystal singing bowls at a more accessible price without sacrificing sound, looks or the therapeutic effects of the frequencies. 

When the pandemic hit and the work I did for this company had to pause, I followed my gut instinct and decided to focus my attention on my own brand. I talked to many different makers and suppliers across the globe and tested samples for sound quality and quartz purity and thickness. After about a year, I found the right supplier who still creates I Know This Girl crystal singing bowls to this day. We have such a strong relationship now.

I’m going to share with you our refined process for making I Know This Girl crystal singing bowls but first I want to talk about the mineral that makes this all possible. 

Why are singing bowls made with quartz? 

You might have seen other singing bowls such as the Crystal Tones alchemy brand are infused with a blend of either gemstones, metals or minerals. In all crystal singing bowls, quartz is the main element because it is the mineral responsible for the clear pure tones, healing vibrations and energetic shifts that come from playing them. At I Know This Girl, we have stripped it back to 99.99% pure quartz crystal and nothing else. 

If you are into crystals, you’re probably already familiar with the power of quartz. As well as using this crystal to support healing and harmony in yourself, you can use it to activate, magnify and harmonise other crystals.

Quartz also has a role in technology. It’s used in many different devices, from computer chips to watches to ultrasound and radios. The role it plays is a crystal oscillator. This means its vibrations synchronise all the computer operations. Quartz is the mineral of choice because it has a very special quality. It’s piezoelectric so it produces an electric charge when under pressure. As a result, it’s incredibly effective at transmitting, storing, transforming and amplifying energy. That includes all kinds of energy: electricity, sound and the unique frequency within us. 

Taking it back to crystal singing bowls, when used as a therapeutic tool, quartz has a beautiful pure sound and the vibrations it produces have a powerful effect on us. It can shift our energy and amplify our intentions. The effect of quartz on the human body is particularly powerful for two more reasons. First, quartz is made of water and silica, both of which are found in the human body. Second, quartz has a crystalline structure and so do our cells. That’s why crystal singing bowls are connected to cellular healing. 

The more I learn about quartz crystal, the more fascinating it is!

How crystal singing bowls are made: handcrafted & artisanal 

With quartz crystal as the basis, how are singing bowls actually made? Here’s a step-by-step guide. 

Each crystal singing bowl is made manually by hand. Even when machines are needed to manage the high-temperature processing, they are controlled by a worker and crafted individually. This was a non-negotiable for me. It produces a much better result than mass production processes and it gives each bowl a unique personality. From a maker’s perspective, this allows them to control the wall thickness, diameter, height and sounding. 

From start to finish, the process of crafting a crystal singing bowl includes:

• High-purity quartz sand melting - They get the raw material ready to be shaped into a singing bowl by melting it at 1850°C.

• Rough bowl forming - Then they start to mould the molten quartz into a bowl shape. At this point, the particles start to fuse into a solid bowl. 

• Cutting - As the quartz cools, excess and unfused material is removed, perfecting the shape. 

• Grinding the edge - This isn’t only important to how the bowl looks but also how it sounds. The rim and thickness of the bowl affect the note and pitch. 

• Fine polishing - This step locks in the structure after all the shaping and refining. 

• Sound fine-tuning - The resonant tone is tuned and tested repeatedly until the bowl reaches the required standard tuning for the chosen note. 

• Finished product inspection and cleaning - They end with a quality check, ensuring both sound and visual quality. For example, they make sure the bowl holds its tuned pitch and there are no cracks in the surface. 

• Packing - Finally, they pack up the bowls to be sent to I Know This Girl HQ. Each bowl then undergoes more rigorous testing by me and I then distribute them among our showrooms and add the new stock to the website. 

  
  

How to check the quality of crystal singing bowls 

There are a few steps in the making process that our supplier follows to ensure the quality of the end product. 

• The raw material is selected from high-grade quartz sand with a purity of 99.99%. They check reports and inspect the purity before the making process begins. Any raw material that fails the purity standard is rejected and they keep batch samples for traceability. They mostly source the raw material from India.

• Working with such high-quality quartz isn’t only beneficial for the therapeutic effects of crystal singing bowls but also for the making process. My supplier explained that it has a stable melting performance and fewer air bubbles and inclusions after high-temperature infusion. So, the quartz has a higher yield rate and a more stable sounding of the crystal singing bowls. 

• During processing, they look for bubbles, cracks and uneven wall thickness. After production, every crystal singing bowl is struck for sounding inspection, checking tone stability, duration and timbre. Only bowls that pass all these tests are packed up for sending.

So much care and craft goes into crystal singing bowls before they make their way into your hands and homes. I’m incredibly proud of the quality we achieve in our singing bowls. It’s what I imagined when creating my own crystal singing bowl brand to fill the gap in the market I was all too familiar with. A huge thank you to my supplier for working so closely with me over the years and to everyone who continues to support I Know This Girl.

If you would like to try I Know This Girl crystal singing bowls and find the ones you connect with, book a consultation at one of our showrooms. We have showrooms in Stroud, Surrey and the New Forest. An experienced practitioner will guide you through your options and considerations for curating a singing bowl collection you love to play. You can also book an online discovery call if there isn’t a showroom near you. I recommend reading our free guide to choosing crystal singing bowls first. I look forward to supporting you in building your own singing bowl collection soon!