Dragon Menpo
The Menpo was forged from a single piece of 12ga mild steel, chased completely from the front over a medium pitch, pierced and filed, and given a heat patina. Even after all the work I put into it I know it's still a very rough piece, I didn't chase out all of my hammer marks, I had some harsh bur edges develop during chasing, the piece isn't symmetrical. However it is quite robust and will last a long time, I'm happy with the pierce work, the project has a fun theme to it, and it allowed me to test out a few new techniques. I finally swapped all my chasing hammer handles with Osage orange wood handles so they would stop breaking on me.
Over all I'm left with a feeling of readiness for the next piece, I do like this piece quite a bit and it was everything the customer wanted however I still went a bit over budget just to get it this far and it was still a little rough. The next few pieces luckily have the budget for more attention to detail, so I'm very much looking forward to pushing myself and my work!