Handle with care – combining metal and wood with Grant McCaig

This course is aimed at those with some experience of small-working or silversmithing. An introduction to the fabrication technique of seaming. You will also learn cold connections for attaching handles.

This course will allow you to make a functional metal vessel incorporating your own handle. Handles can be made of driftwood, old paintbrushes, even pebbles. You will learn how to consider and connect your own found objects to a metal vessel.

The vessel you will work with will be created using the silversmithing technique of seaming. Seaming is taking a flat sheet and quickly forming up into a cylinder, which we then solder. It is a fundamental process that provides a great many outcomes and possibilities for future projects. From this simple cylindrical form, you will be shown a range of ways to develop the shape to your own design; these can be as complex as time allows or as simple as you like. The handles will be cold connected to the vessel using a bezel and rivets (and maybe a little glue).