Pewter Casting?

[aringil]

Howdy,  this is my first post on this board and I would really like to find out how to make pewter charms and pendants. I have read posts about clay and I am wondering if this clay is used to make forms for pendants? Also can the molds be used multiple times? Is there a site that a person can purchase pre made molds from?
 Thanks for any info!
       Aringil

[Polly]

The metals that get mixed together to make pewter, need be to molten and poured into some kind of fairly hi-temp casting molds.  
(At least, higher temperatures than the plastic or polymer- based mold-making materials that are used with Art Clay Silver and polymer clays.  The molds discussed on our Art Clay Silver and Polymer Clay boards are for materials that can be put into the molds with your bare hands.)

You need some expensive manufacturing equipment to cast your own pewter charms.  Or, with a lot of research, ingenuity, and mechanical know-how, you can probably make your own less-expensive versions of the appropriate manufacturing equipment, but it wouldn't be simple.  
It would either be a huge time and effort investment (not to mention needing a safe working environment), or a very large monetary investment.

That's not to say it can't be done!  I know of people who have, but for all the time and effort involved, you end up charging nearly the same prices for your finished pewter charms, as you would for sterling silver charms.

That's a good portion of why you don't find a lot of handmade or cottage industry pewter.  But you do find a lot of handcrafted sterling silver jewelry.  (Or in the case of Art Clay Silver, it is .999 fine silver rather than .925 sterling silver.)

So I guess what I'm saying is:  Although Art Clay Silver itself is rather pricey, it requires a much smaller investment in tools and equipment, and so you can start producing jewelry to sell with a lot less investment than just about any other metal-working jewelry field, other than wire-wrapping, or assembling existing findings.

--Polly

[Metalman]

The pewter and the silver would not interact well for molding and casting, but you could make silver charms and pendants with the Art Clay.  You can use any sort of mold you can find around, for example I use polymer clay doll face molds.  Making molds is pretty easy as well. I use polymer clay and well as the 2-part silicon putty [R&T cat # 87-041] both are easy and fast.