Vase by Hamish Dobbie

This beautiful piece was commissioned from Scottish silversmith Hamish Dobbie by the P&O Makower Trust for the Making and Creating gallery. A Glasgow School of Art graduate, Dobbie is one of a new generation of makers who combine traditional hand skills with innovative technologies.

Dobbie first created a series of sketches, models and 3D rendered designs to visualise how the piece would look.

The smaller elements of the piece were created using 3D printing. These were used to make a mould, and the pieces were then cast in wax, so that Dobbie could experiment with different configurations.

The silver components were made using traditional lost wax casting. These pieces were then hand-soldered onto hexagonal profile wire to create the crown of the vessel. The crown was then plated with Black Rhodium to create the darkened effect.

The main body of the vessel is made from a rolled silver sheet which was forged and then planished – this is a process which involves finely shaping the piece into a tapering cone and then smoothing the surface, before the foot is soldered into place.

The film below traces the development of the commission.

The P&O Makower Trust has been supporting emerging silversmiths since 1974, with collections from the Trust’s commissions on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), National Museum Wales (Cardiff), and our own National Museums Scotland here in Edinburgh. With over forty commissions being made, this remarkable Trust is responsible for helping introduce a wider audience to this age-old craft and placing some of the most renowned names within the craft into Museums at the very start of their careers.