New week. New Techniques - Part Two

[ P e w t e r . ]

This the first time I've ever worked with pewter and I absolutely loved it! The block of solid metal quickly melts under the heat of the blowtorch and can then be poured into a mold.

Not a great photo (its very dark in that corner of the workshop!) but here is the pewter just after being poured into clay. I had pressed the metal shape into the wet clay first to form the outline. As you can see the pewter is very free flowing so can easily spill, but the great thing is it can be melted down to be used again if it does go wrong! 

Above are my first experiments, the on the left was created using the same silicon mould I poured plaster into earlier in the week & it came out lovely and textured but did melt the mould a bit so I'll have to explore this with a different material next time.

Continuing on with the same domed shape I enlisted the help of my tutor Ed to help make a wooden press mould to press sheet metal into. This requires lots of precise calculations which is definitely not my strong point so I was very glad of the help!

This is still in the process of being made so I'll keep you posted on whether this worked in the end or not!