I spent one day studying silversmithing with an Akha tribal smith. Mostly I learned how tricky it is; it would have taken me weeks or months to master the simple part: hammering things flat. I came away in awe of his abilities.
Since my polyclay spindles were wearing out, I asked him to make me a silver spindle. Here are some photos from the process.
You can read more about my adventures with the Akha in the Thailand section of my travel blog.
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.
