What do blacksmithing and yoga have in common? Plenty, as Kilian Trenkle shows us.
Actually, Kilian Trenkle is a yoga instructor. As such, he doesn’t usually turn the world, but often himself, upside down. And he’s already invented the right tool for the job: the FeetUp® yoga headstand stool, a wooden stool with padded shoulder supports to allow even inflexible yogis to get vertical without damaging their spine. Heads down, of course. Doing a headstand not only promotes the cerebral blood flow, but also opens up new perspectives. In this way, the native Bavarian discovered another, quite different passion: making cowbells. »Next to yoga, blacksmithing is slowly taking up more and more of my time.«
Cowbells are as typical of Bavarian alpine pastures as the cows themselves. The sound of the bells helps herders to find their cattle. But there are other traditions that make cowbells a fixture of Bavarian culture. In the past, people believed that the sound would keep evil spirits away. This apparently does not hold for free spirits like Kilian. After developing his headstand stool, he apprenticed under his father. Who also is a cowbell blacksmith. So now Kilian is continuing the family tradition. Not out of obligation, but because he finds it fascinating to be making things with his own hands. While yoga puts Kilian at peace with himself in Buddhist equanimity, blacksmithing brings him in touch with a primeval, archetypically masculine way of being. Yoga, he says, represents his soft side. Blacksmithing is the complete opposite.
It takes about 1,000 strikes to hammer the two red-hot steel surfaces into their typically curved bell shape. But despite, or perhaps because of this: »Blacksmithing is the most beautiful job in the world.« The repetitive motions have a meditative quality for Kilian. Which, very zen-like, brings us full circle back to yoga.
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