Description
Pewter Sheet, Lead Free
What is pewter sheet metal? The pewter sheet is a malleable alloy, which is perfect for creating 3-dimensional designs. It consists mostly of the following: about 90 – 92% tin and about 7.5% Antimony. Bismuth, Copper, and sometimes Silver is making up the rest. Some pewter also contains lead, however, all pewter available from Esmeric Art are lead free.
Pewter Sheet Metal and Metal Embossing
Because of the composition of the pewter, it makes for the perfect metal embossing medium. It is malleable, and soft and it stretches, which allows for 3-dimensional designs.
Modern-day Pewter Art, or Repoussè explores the decorative modeling of thin malleable metal sheets. Volume is created through high relief and embossing. Essential tools are needed, such as a mat set, a refiner, and a paper stump. One can also use other handheld tools to push the pewter sheet to create volume. Pushing the pewter from behind into a soft surface using a finger or thumb is another way to create height. However, care needs to be taken as the metal stretches, and when pushed out too quickly, or too much at once, it can tear. This can be fixed using metal tape. The texture is created with debossing, engraving, impressing, and or mark-making. In addition to the basic tools, texture wheels are a quick and easy way to create textures. When using decorative wheels to create texture, two different textures can be achieved. The texture depends if the mark is made on the front or the back of the pewter sheet metal. Using the decorative wheels on the front of the sheets will create a debossed or engraved effect. An embossed effect will be created when the wheels are used on the back of the sheets. Pending the works surface on which the sheets are placed, even high relief can be achieved with the wheels. Care needs to be taken, not to tear the pewter.
The pewter sheet is also easy to cut. This eliminates waste as off-cuts can be turned into embellishments for greeting cards and scrapbooking. These off-cuts can also be used to create pewter jewelry. There are many uses for these malleable sheets.
