PEWTER WORKSHOP // JACKY OLIVER Pewter metal workshop with visiting artist Jacky Oliver after a talk about her practice. She showed us how to carve designs into the soft sides of cuttlefish shells and then we poured molten pewter (melted using a gas flame) into the hollows and allowed it to cool. My first cast didn’t fill the shape fully due to the thin lines and spilled out of the shell mould, so for a second attempt I carved a ‘well’ around the sun design. This filled the shape of the sun and bought out the beautiful textures of the cuttlefish shell however I prefer the separate rays of my first one, a sun-turned-star. To finish I filed the edges to remove any sharp bits & make them both tidier. It was my first time working with molten metal and I quite enjoyed the new material and maybe might use it again for a future work…
