Create your own unique design in Pewter using a traditional metalwork technique of cuttlefish casting. Using this unexpected material Ella from This is Pewter will guide you through the process of making your own keyring or pendant to take away. Get hands-on with traditional jewellery making tools, pour molten pewter and create your own design.

You will leave the session with your own pewter keyring or pendant to take away.

Sessions last 3-hours, no equipment required, suitable for beginners. Minimum age 18 +

THIS IS PEWTER, designed and handmade by Ella from her studio at Manchester Craft and Design Centre specialising in contemporary Pewter items for the home and table.
Ella enjoys pushing the boundaries of Pewter, an alloy metal which is lead and tarnish free, using traditional skilled Pewtersmithing techniques alongside her modern design style to create functional items often combining different textures within her pieces.

Having trained as a Silversmith Ella fell in love with Pewter with its characteristics of malleability and low melting temperature. This allows Ella to create tactile textures in her work which are inspired by everyday sights such as scaffolding around a modern building, tangled fishing nets on the harbour, cracked pottery and rusty nails in a fencepost

Since THIS IS PEWTER has been established Ella has been awarded best in show and first prize by The Worshipful Company of Pewterers during Pewter Live 2006 and 2016 Competition, received prestigious commissions such as Olympic Presentation by Ribble Valley Borough Council to Samantha Murray and Jonathon Schofield and exhibited around the United Kingdom.

Currently expanding on her new #UTENSiL range of work alongside her popular programme of Give it a Bash Pewter workshops which encourages adults and budding Pewtersmiths to try traditional metalwork techniques and create their own designs in a finished piece. Ella enjoys the teaching aspect of Give it a Bash workshops as well as introducing many people to Pewter for the first time, seeing them fall in love with the metal as she once experienced