I have been very slack with my pewter work over the last 6-8 months and as such I have gotten a little behind.  In order to attempt to get back on track I’m publishing the list of pending jobs in the order that I need to complete them.

1. Current project for Their Majesties.
2. 80 – 100 x Radburne War Event Tokens (Annual Commission).
3. 3 x Coronets for Their Excellencies of Mordenvale.
4. 50 x tokens for Kotek, Kingdom Chirurgeon (Also need to ship the first 30).
5. Coronet for Cortaine.
6. Finish 2009 Period Archery cup for Maddog and 2010 Cup.
7. Private Commission.
8. Owl Tokens for Owain.
9. Sun Tokens for Catherine.
10. Pewter Tablero set for Myself.
11. Further Experiments in Drinking Vessels.

Any further jobs or projects asked of me will need to fit in-line with this current list.  I am estimating that at my current participation rate it’s going to take me at least 12 months to get to the end of this list.  I will still consider bumping the list for commissioned event tokens as event tokens are the reason I got into this hobby and I’m a strong believer in events having commemorative tokens.

If you have previously commissioned a project from me that is not on this list then please contact me however I do believe that I have listed all currently commissioned projects.  There is however one group that I do owe 40 tokens to, however I am still awaiting their design, and that is not listed.

…’Cause it really is not the actual casting bit.

I’m finding the actual casting of these current tokens very frustrating.  I would really like to know from other casters out there what the failure rate on your casts are, cause at the moment I’m getting about 2/3rds failures.  I’m also not exceptionally happy with the quality of the other 1/3rd that I have been keeping and often just give up on a particular pour all together.

Is the mould meant to get so hot you can’t actually hold it with welders gloves?  Does preheating the mould actually make a real difference?  If so…  what Temp do you preheat to?  I have found that I tend to get the best results with a cold mould that has a big enough opening to allow a full pour without allowing pockets to form, though I have also found that it is very hard to get that to work when you are casting thin tokens as the pewter freezes before it can get into all the nooks and crannies.

Advice anyone?