How Do You Make A Mold For Pewter Casting?

Pewter is a traditional low-temperature metal-casting material used to make everything from jewelry to goblets. Osso di seppia, which is Italian for "cuttlefish bone", is a common technique used when casting pewter. A two-piece mold is made by carving or impressing an item into the bone, pouring the molten metal, and removing the mold marks and extra material after the metal cools. Don wrap-around eye protection and a NIOSH-approved respirator. Use coarse sandpaper to sand the soft sides of both pieces of cuttlefish bone until perfectly flat. They should fit against one another without any visible light when viewed from the side. Don heavy leather work gloves. Use a hobby knife to carve a negative impression of your desired item halfway into the soft, flat sides of each cuttlefish bone. Instead of carving the impression yourself, osso di seppia artist Mario Casari says you can also make a model of your desired item and "drive the model into one of the bones, sinking it until it is ...  more