Casting gorgeous wee cottages

 

I got time over the last couple of days to cast some wee pewter traditional cottages with chimneys   - see above; as well as finishing 10 more leaves on stalks - see below.

The cottages are cast in sand that I have pressed moulds into. There are two sizes - 3cm long X 2cm high; and 18mm long X 18mm high - hence different containers to put the sand in etc as you can see below.

I usually heat the recycled pewter metal to about 750 degrees to allow impurities to burn off and give myself plenty of time to pour. Most times a small stream of smoke appears as the hot metal burns the oil in the casting sand.

As you can see above the cottages come out with sand and soot clinging to the metal. A clean with a fine brass brush gets rid of the sand and soot. A couple more photos of the finished cottages follow.

If you look closely you can see the casting sand imprint on the metal. Every wee cottage is unique because of how the metal reacts with the sand, the temperature and how well I'm pouring the metal.