I still had a little pewter paper left over from my gecko project so decided to put another "show me how" to the test. I recently started rewriting my recipe books into hard cover books. I covered these books with some black and grey wall paper and proceeded to put the pewter to the test.
Materials:
Pewter sheet
Tracer Tool
Ball/Teflon tool
Paper pen
Felt/soft cloth
Latex gloves
Patina
Cotton wool
Metal polish (brasso)
Glue
Brush
Glass board or hard surface to work on.
Decide on which book you would like to use. There are some nice ones available in stationary stores but if like me you want to use a normal note book, it can be covered in any medium. You can work with stencils. I used a stencil (flexible plastic) which is mainly used for borders on walls. I bought it at a hardware store. If you decide to stencil your name or initials into the pewter, you can print out the font you want (in big letters) from the computer and just trace it onto your pewter sheet. Remember when doing letters that the embossing should be back towards the front and in mirror image. Once you trace the letters you will emboss them with a teflon or ball tool a little bit bigger than it already is. Once done, flip it over onto a hard surface and start giving definition by flattening the areas all around the letters to make it stand out a bit more.
Going back to the stenciling that I used. I took my scrap pewter strip which is bigger than the length of the book and taped the stencil to my pewter so that it wouldn't shift while I was working on it. I flipped the pewter over so that the stencil was at the bottom of the paper. Ensure that your stencil and paper is on a hard smooth surface (on my marble kitchen counters did the trick). Then using my fingers I started gently rubbing the pattern through the paper and watched as the pattern started to take shape. You can feel with your finger where the actual design is as pewter is like a thick version of tin foil. Using your paper pen, you can roll it against your actual design so that it gives more definition. You can press quite a bit harder to pick up the design. If at any stage you feel that your paper pen is scratchy, you can rub a little oil over the pewter surface with cottonwool.
Using a teflon tool, follow the edges of your stencil to give it a nice crisp definition of the outline. Because the stencil against the hard surface of the counter is shallow, I didn't need to fill the indentations with bees wax, as it would keep its shape.
Once you have finished this stage, you can use a textured template or free hand if you're quite artistic. Placing your pewter strip onto the textured template, use your paper pen and start rubbing the design through your paper. Make sure that you tape the paper down so that it doesn't shift half way.
Place the pewter sheet (once you are happy with your design) onto newspaper. Using latex gloves (as patina is really messy and will stain your hands), dab some patina onto a piece of cotton wool and start applying to your design. The reaction to the metal is instantaneous and will start turning black. Should you apply too much, the excess can be dabbed up with kitchen towel. Leave it to dry. It takes approximately a minute to dry, depending on the weather. Once dry, take the metal polish and cotton wool and remove as much of the black from the design as you prefer. Some people like it really dark and others not. This procedure gives good definition as it starts to resemble shadows. Once you are happy with the amount of black still on your design, you can start buffing off the metal polish with another piece of dry cottonwool or batting. Using the cottonwool and elbow grease you must buff the pewter to a shine. Once you have finished, its time to cut out your design with a craft knife or "cutter".
Because I only used a strip of pewter to embellish my book, I left one side straight to go against the spine of my book and cut around the other side of my design to give it some interest. If you have really straight lines, a scisssors can be used to cut the pewter. You can use a pewter glue (which adheres to any surface) or a normal contact adhesive which I used. Glue the strip down, folding in the extra length into the inside of the book to give it a nice finished look.
Voila!!!!! Amazing new recipe book, which I can now leave out and not feel embarrassed by.
Also this is a great idea for "diaries" or "note books" for friends and family. I hope you try this out as it really is fun to create.
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