Meditation bowl and leaf words

©2019 Barry Smith - Two meditation bowls with Tree of Life symbols at the centre - made from salvaged silver-plated placemats - almost too shiny to photograph

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.

©2019 Barry Smith - Hammer bowl (185mm in diameter) with 10cm leaf words

©2019 Barry Smith - Seven word leaves in the larger bowl

©2019 Barry Smith - Six word lives in the smaller bowl - one out for daily inspiration

©2019 Barry Smith - Word leaf - 'non-striving'

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

©2019 Barry Smith - Flat metal after annealing and first hammering

©2019 Barry Smith - Both bowls after 3rd hammering

©2019 Barry Smith - Smaller bowl being encouraged to sink into shape

©2019 Barry Smith - Smaller bowl marked up for planishing - I like to do this in quite a structured way as it results in a strong vessel form

©2019 Barry Smith - Both bowls ready for the polisher

©2019 Barry Smith - Bowls - ground and polished on the work bench

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