Ram's head Drinking vessel

Sammie - Friday, December 19, 2008 - 1:01pm

Silver Rython Chased and Repoussed: The Rams Head Drinking vessel started out as a flat sheet of 18 gage sterling and was hand raised to cup form. Then the ram's features were hammered out using a snaring iron and chasing tools. 7 x 3 ''

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I am surprised that you used

marilyn - Saturday, December 20, 2008 - 4:58pm

I am surprised that you used a snarling iron instead of pitch. I think of pain when I think about using a snarling iron. My hat's off to you.

marilyn

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Chase and Repousse ram's head

Sammie - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 10:13am

Hi Marilyn,

Good point! I did use pitch, sorry I forgot to include that bit of info.
After I had pushed out the main forms for the ear, horns, eye and nose with the snaring iron. I filled the cup with pitch and the went back over the piece pressing back into the metal with chasing tools to bring out the finer forms.

Thanks,
Sammie

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Sammie, These are great

Fred Zweig - Monday, December 22, 2008 - 1:34pm

Sammie,

These are great proportions on you cup. An impressive task and well executed. Congratulations!

Best,
Fred

Fred Zweig
Metalsmith

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Totally different

warren - Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - 9:54am

Sammie,
WOW that is so different and cool. Raising something to that shape and then getting the details of the ram's head. Lots of planning and hoping it all goes well type of project. Excellent piece.

www Metalrecipes -- heat and beat to the desired shape, repeat as necessary.
warren

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comment

visitor - Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - 2:07pm

i like how the shape of the ear and the shape of the horn
interlace and interact.
overall...subtle and brilliant.

charley
houston, tx

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Very, very nice

QuiQue - Thursday, January 1, 2009 - 4:13pm

Very, very nice craftsmanship of this piece! How long did it take for you to transform the flat sheet to this three dimensional object? It would be nice for folks to understand the amount of work you put into the transformation.

Thanks for sharing!

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Ram's Head Drinking Vessel

visitor - Friday, January 2, 2009 - 12:31pm

I'm curious which source material you used if any.
I know the Armenians have a long tradition of producing Ram's head rhytons as do other ancient cultures.

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Chased Rams Head

Sammie - Friday, January 2, 2009 - 2:51pm

Hi there,

That is a good question. I started this project about 6 or 8 years ago and got really intimidated. This was because I had a wrinkle in the metal that I could not for the life of me get to set down. So after tossing it in a drawer and forgetting it for a number of years, I got on a jag to finish up all my old projects. So out it came and I guess it was time, because everything went really smoothly! whew!! So over all if you don't count the years gathering dust...To raise it into a cone, about 2 days. To get the main plans with the snaring iron 1/2 day and to chase out the details took a little over week. Finally the floral trim on the lip I guess the took me a day. I definitely was a labor of love and I really learned a lot pushing myself.

Sammie

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