Studio Notes 20/06/20 - I've been casting pewter paint tube pendants to create my own ideal artist's gift, and practise my sand casting technique.
I’m not a jeweller, but since I started casting pewter I’ve been tempted to try to make some wearable art. This week I spent some time casting pewter paint tube pendants as it was the kind of artist’s gift I’d love to own myself.
For a few years now, I’ve been saving empty paint tubes and other small art material consumables to use in making art about art. Of course, as is my way, after a few initial pieces I second-guessed myself into not following through, and the artworks were so different from my normal work that I didn’t think I should push through that feeling.
Last week I made vacuum formed moulds of some of my reserved paint tubes, and I realised that I wanted to see some of my old ideas made real. The next step was sand-casting them in pewter.
Casting the items meant having to master using my new small cope and drag, and over the week I’ve been hammering away at it until I could confidently make casts without glaring errors. These pieces, though, were made fairly early on in the week, as afterthoughts to the main event.
It’s funny how the things that were meant to be extras ended up stealing the show for the week.
My current issue is not having the basic equipment for jewellery making, so not having a plan for attaching findings or rings. As my intention is to add these to my Etsy store, I’m going to come up with a way of integrating these into the design for my next castings.
For now I’m going to enjoy wearing my new gifts to myself!
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