Stemless solid silver saki drinking vessel

©2016 Barry Smith - Stemless solid silver saki vessel on its stand with rust

I decided I wanted to try my hand at making a stemless saki drinking vessel from a sheet of solid silver. This would mean committing quite a bit of new .5mm thick 925 silver to the project. I wanted the vessel to be stemless and yet have a stand as I wanted the drinking vessel to be very pure in its lines.

It was a while since I had hammered small bowls with straight sides from flat sheet so I practiced on some silver-plated EPNS before committing to the solid silver. The diameter of the drinking vessel circle of  metal was 70mm; and that for the stand was about 35mm.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Circles of silver

Making the stand was a bit of a challenge - quite a small piece of metal to hold and hammer on the stake.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Hammering the stand - that dark metal is actually annealed solid silver

But the combined outcome looks good in  front of the anvil.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Stemless vessel with stand - in the rough

©2016 Barry Smith  - The solid silver stand

And the test bowl, the drinking vessel and stand look pretty rough on the grinding-polishing bench.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Ready for grinding and polishing

As you can see the the drinking vessels looks reasonably small in my hand; but in reality it is 60mm in diameter and about 20-25mm deep.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Saki vessel in hand - I have deliberately left the edge with a hammered look

A couple more photos on stone; and with the vessel and stand separated.

©2016 Barry Smith  - Stemless drinking vessel on sandstone

©2016 Barry Smith  - Vessel and stand on rust

I think I proved to myself I can do this; and I think a fellow metal worker will appreciate the beauty and hand hammered nature of the vessel.