Pewter Casting

Over Easter I was able to try out some new things that aren't necessarily related to my studying practice and Pewter casting was one of these. After watching some YouTube videos of metal casting I was fixated on being able to do it at home as I am interested in trying to do things on a low budget with equipment I can use from around me. Sure, I could easily have gone into university and used their fancy machines at zero cost but where is the fun in that? I am very conscious that when I leave university I will not have access to those things and so I want to learn how to do them with low cost materials that I can use at home. With a budget of about approximately £40 I bought the equipment I needed off eBay and started casting!

It took me a couple of attempts to get the hang of creating the moulds and pouring the metal but I eventually managed to get a successful cast of a Thierry Heny Micro Star football figure. The good thing about pewter is that it is a tin alloy and so has a melting point low enough for me to do it in the oven and if it goes wrong, I can just melt it back down and try again!

Being satisfied with the Thierry Henry figure I decided to push it a little further. Casting models is cool and all but you're just casting something that has already been cast, I wanted to cast something I'd made. I designed a small Buffalo Bills keyring out of lino and turned it into a pewter keyring for my manager at work as we both support the Bills and went to watch them live at Wembley last October. I then designed a small French Bulldog brooch for the beautiful Amy Hodkin as a gift which she loves (even though she probably wishes it was a real one!).

I really enjoyed making the French Bulldog brooch and it was incredibly rewarding to be able to hold something I'd made by hand from scratch by doing a little research online. I enjoyed it so much that I have been working on a set of Pug brooches (everyone loves a pug, right?) that I am yet to colour with enamel and will be for sale in the future. I will do a post about the Pug brooches once they are finally complete so if you are interested in one then keep your eyes open!

I hope you enjoyed this slightly different style of post and feel free to ask me questions or let me know what you think!