Sea Monster Stirrup Cup 004 was the first cup to move away from monsters directly sourced from historical maps. Instead, I let ambition and process lead the design. At this stage, I still believed the series would end at five cups, four in silver and one in gold, but the work itself pushed me to continue beyond that plan. This cup helped expand my understanding of what the series could be: more sculptural, less illustrative, and more deeply tied to the limits and possibilities of hand-hammered metal.