Welcome to my new website! Here are some tiny copper bowls and vases that I've been working on with the help of this awesome oak stump, a couple of specialized hammers, and two raising stakes (the t-shaped one and the lumpy number just under it). (Toby for scale.) I'm practicing a new skill, hammer raising, in which bowls and other hollow vessels are formed by hammering sheet metal strategically against stakes like these. You start with sheet metal--you gradually stretch it by hammering it at an angle on a stake--and voila, bowl. Or step 3, profit, as the underpants gnomes used to say. Before industrial metal forming, this is one of the main ways that smiths made metal containers, from cups to cauldrons. Think Paul Revere in his silversmith shop. I'll show off some of my hammers soon. I am now obsessed with hammers, and I have my eye on 30-50 vintage ones on Ebay. Once I've had a bit more practice, I can't wait to bring these new items into my shop!