Akha silversmithing

Me silversmithing. I was really, really bad at it, being a rank beginner, but at least I could hit things with a hammer!

I asked the silversmith to make me a silver spindle. First step: heating the silver to anneal/soften it.

The second step was to hammer it flat and roughly round. In the course of doing this, the silversmith realized that it was too big. Here he is cutting off the excess with a machete and hammer.

Here is where the black magic came in. He hammered it flat and perfectly round, with just a hammer and anvil!!

The spindle whorl - flat and perfectly round.

I asked him to put some decoration in the whorl. Here he is working on it.

The finished spindle. It is perfectly balanced!

A closeup of the finished spindles. They are lovely - works of art, really.

Here he is at work on another piece, part of the Akha headgear.

Here he is carefully hammering in the patterning for a headband.

And here are the finished pieces.

Here are his tools, and some completed work. Those balls are HAMMERED into shape!

And here are the forms for the balls. He said he used to use wood, but water buffalo horn is better.