...and a few more....

I have been playing with my molds some more and I got 2 new ones......angel wings.  one mold makes a tiny pair and the other is a multiple wing mold.  I had high hopes for these molds.....

but alas - I was very disappointed!  The big multiple wing is not the fancy one I expected.

pretty plain and undetailed...and VERY THICK!  I think the molds were made for plaster, not pewter....

and the tiny wing.....

just weird formed.

oh well- that's the excitement when you have MYSTERY MOLDS.

But hey, look how cool this one turned out...and this is also a multiple mold...it makes 6 at a time! 

It's a beautiful dove!  I'm going to drill a hole in the tail so it can be a descending Holy Spirit dove.

and this is an ADORABLE tiny frog.  Very heavy - a frog good luck piece to carry in your pocket.

Then I decided to try and cast my round rubber molds.  These molds are made to go in a spin caster machine.  The hot pewter would be poured into the center as the mold was spun at 4500 rpm's (it says so on the mold!)  I put rubber bands around the mold and clamped it as tight as I could with bullnose clamps  and I held it up on edge and poured the pewter in the center slots.

sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.  it was hard to get the pewter into the farthest crannies...missing feet, missing tails on the teeny kitties...so I cut off the deformed bodies and made kitty-head beads!  The teeny tiny bird molds I have it wouldn't fill at all...only part of a wing, no beak, etc. I will keep experimenting with those. I did discover that after 3 or 4 unsuccessful pours that I had a better chance of a successful casting because the mold was now hot and the pewter had more time to flow deeper into the mold. I finally got one big kitten and one little kitten to mold ..  just one.

 I can't really cast more than one or two at a time from each round mold....but at least with a little effort I know the larger molds are usable. 

Once cast, the molds require a lot of finishing....I use a small handsaw to remove the sprues and extra pewter, and my dremel to remove the seams...then I polish the pieces with foam sanding pads from 150 thru 6,000 grit.   Lastly I put them in my tumbler for an hour.  The 4 little pewter pieces above haven't been polished yet.  Later.