The Gallery will be selling a wide range of arts and crafts by other artists as well as our own Pewter and silver work, we’ll have a dedicated light jewellery making workshop where you’ll be able to watch us at work and eventually a larger workshop too!

We really hope that as we grow our business The Gallery will become a focal point in the village.

While we’re busy working on opening the gallery and our new workshop we’re also re-constructing our website so we can’t currently take online orders. However we do have items in stock and if you’d like a particular item then please drop us a line via our contact form.

Best Wishes,

Martin, Angela, Glynis & Keith

Pewter Christmas Tree

We now have our final batch of Pewter Christmas Tree decorations in stock. These will be the last i’ll be able to make in 2012 so please order today to avoid disappointment!

Robins, Leaves and Heart Christmas Decorations are all currently in stock too!

Pewter Christmas Tree

Last orders for Christmas Trees. Having very briefly restocked and once again sold out of our Christmas Trees we’re now taking final last orders on this item as I only have time to make one more batch in time for the last UK Christmas Post.

Lesson @ Farmer’s Market © Martin Paling 2012

We’ll be at the special Christmas Sutton Bonington Farmer’s Market tomorrow from 11am-3:30pm. The market recently won the BBC Good Food Best Market Award for 2012. Anyone that has visited the market will know that the students that organise it do a really great job so we’re especially looking forward to this Christmas special!

Image © Martin Paling 2012, All Rights Reserved. No part of this image may be reproduced without written consent, please contact me for more details.

24/11/2012 Our neighbours first floor was flooded

It seems that there is not a corner of the UK that has not been affected by flooding this winter, our own small corner of the country while certainly not as badly affected as most did not escape unscathed. Sutton Bonington has for some time had good flood defenses against the River Soar so it was a surprise this November to discover our street flooded, however the flood came not from the river bursting it’s banks but from flash floods rushing down Hungary Lane. What might surprise most villagers is that on some nights the flood spanned from Hungary Lane all the way to Bollards Lane and was in places 40cm deep. The efforts of a handful of villagers in unblocking drains meant that often by dawn the flood water had drained away and the majority of the village would never know there was a flood at all!

While a number of properties and cars were damaged we should think ourselves lucky, the neighboring village of Zouch half a mile down the road had to be evacuated.

I managed to get a few photographs of the floods on Wednesday 21st of November when things didn’t seem so bad, by Saturday when we had our house surrounded by sandbags taking photos was the last thing on my mind, but Angela managed to snap a few shots once the water levels had dropped.

However please note that our stocks are limited so please do order early to avoid disappointment!

The decorations are £7 each or £6 if you buy two or more.

 Pewter Christmas Decorations

Market Harborough Christmas Craft Fair

Thanks to Grandma Paling aged 63 and a half and Holly aged (almost) 3 years we’re a bit closer to restocking all of the Christmas decorations we sold at the weekend. Grandma spent Monday casting and Holly helped deliver the castings to my jewellery bench!

New Decorations in the making!

I expect to have the new stock online by next week.

Here’s what the fresh mold looks like:

Rubber Mold for Pewter

We carefully tease the two halves with our fingers encouraging them to split, if that doesn’t work we use a scalpel to start the splitting process… if that doesn’t work… well that’s when I panic and hand the mold over to Grandma Paling! (Though at this point she’s usually already demanded it)

Fortunately this mold split beautifully, a really satisfying sensation… a little like easy peelable wallpaper!

Split Rubber Mold with Wax patterns still inside

The mold now needs to be cleaned up and then we can start the spruing process (these are the line through which the molten Pewter will travel), we like to do this gradually adding the very bare essentials and then building up as it’s needed.

And here’s the result of the first casting:

Pewter Casting in Mold

A very good result, only the heart hasn’t fully cast, and that doesn’t really surprise us because the heart is difficult shape to cast: as the metal rushes into the mold it goes straight to the point of the heart and then fills up behind it. It’s possibly the biggest shape in the mold and unlike the Robin which has a more slender less complex shape that compliments the way the metal flows the top of the heart creates some “conflict” as the two halves meet and the metal collides.

The solution to this could be to add more sprue lines through which the metal can run, but that can be a mistake (one that I have made lot’s of times before) Instead the solution more often may be to alter the speed at which the mold runs, and to wait for the mold to warm up a little.

And in this case it worked:

Pewter castings in Mold

These are the type of molds you hope for, especially in a product like this that while using a fairly high amount of Pewter will hopefully be cast and finished in a way that means it can be sold for an attractive price. Prices of anything handmade don’t include just the value of the materials but the time that goes into making something. A small piece of jewellery might be twice the price of a larger piece of the larger piece only takes a few hours to make whereas the smaller piece might take a day or two. These decorations have, as you will know if you’ve been following our posts, have taken months to make… and we don’t yet have a complete piece!

The greatest thing about something handmade is that it’s original, made with passion and care and ultimately each piece is unique. Even Pewter castings like these will be unique: The metal will never flow quite the same way, it’s temperature will vary and it will result in different surface variations. I won’t be able to polish each piece exactly the same and the ribbons that Angela will be tying onto them unlike a mass produced item won’t be cut and tied to the exact same length as a machine would.

Hopefully we’ll have the finished items ready for sale on the website soon!

Snug Craft Gifts and Jewellery

Making Pewter Christmas Decorations:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

Snug Craft Heart Token Box

Having been cast I’ve just finished filing them. Next I’ll have to start the long process of finishing and polishing!

Snug Craft Gifts – Handmade in the UK