Tobias Kaye lives and works in Devon. He began life in 1956 on a farm in Ireland where he was born to idealistic/spiritual parents who moved to England three years later to pursue their hopes and dreams. Tobias was educated at a Steiner-Waldorf school in Sussex and then spent some years travelling the world and exploring different forms of work. Coffin making, forestry, bar-tending, geological section mapping, care of children with learning difficulties, and teaching, were just some of his trial occupations.
Throughout this time music was important to Tobias. Whether it was playing piano, penny whistle or just singing and whistling Tobias retained a love of music on a very amateur level. Tobias began turning wood in 1979, by 1983 he was supplying some of England’s top galleries and was elected by London’s liveried “Worshipful Company of Turners” to their newly founded ‘Register of Professional Turners’ and has since exhibited his work at major Art-of-Woodturning shows across the world and had pieces bought by museums and private collectors in many countries.
Tobias began developing the Sounding Bowls in 1986. since 1992 the NHS has been his biggest single customer, placing Sounding Bowls in many hospitals, children’s units and hospices. Tobias finds real satisfaction in seeing his work go to people and places that are working on human issues. Personal and human development is an area that is important to him and his studies in this field, centring around the work of the Austrian philosopher and spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner keep him as much interested as does making.
Tobias’s finds it deeply satisfying that Sounding Bowls are becoming an established musical instrument. “if after my death” he says “others are still making recognisable Sounding Bowls, that people are getting real satisfaction from holding and playing then I shall feel I have achieved something.”
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