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Description
"Heads:" left. "Tails:" right.

As well as the "I can't believe this thing actually works" MDF mold, I've looked into a couple of other methods of casting pewter. Unlike the MDF mold, which has to be made from scratch, this type can be made from the impression of an existing object: in this case a souvenir necklace from Disneyland.

The Pirates of the Caribbean coin thingumy seemed kind of appropriate given that the mold was made from cuttlefish bone. The "heads" side was made by pressing/hammering the original into the bone. The "tails" side was done in much the same way, but since it's hard to make a dent in chitin with blunt force alone (and I needed to make sure the finished object had the right thickness), I carved out the initial hollow with a penknife. Since this leaves a rough surface with lots of "ribs" jutting out, it doesn't take an impression as well as the bone used for the "heads" side which was prepared by sanding alone.

Although it's a bit fiddly and burning cuttlebone smells awful, this is a pretty good way of casting a detailed object and I expect I'll be doing more of it in the near future.

While the "tails" side isn't what I was going for initially, it's kind of nice to have two different sides to the coin so it can be flipped. If I end up using this for anything in particular, it'll probably be a dealer chip in poker games.

The original item (and so I'm assuming this thing too) is (c) Disney China. Given that I have no intentions of selling them, I can't imagine there would be any legal problems with the 2.5 of these I've made.

Description
"Heads:" left. "Tails:" right.

As well as the "I can't believe this thing actually works" MDF mold, I've looked into a couple of other methods of casting pewter. Unlike the MDF mold, which has to be made from scratch, this type can be made from the impression of an existing object: in this case a souvenir necklace from Disneyland.

The Pirates of the Caribbean coin thingumy seemed kind of appropriate given that the mold was made from cuttlefish bone. The "heads" side was made by pressing/hammering the original into the bone. The "tails" side was done in much the same way, but since it's hard to make a dent in chitin with blunt force alone (and I needed to make sure the finished object had the right thickness), I carved out the initial hollow with a penknife. Since this leaves a rough surface with lots of "ribs" jutting out, it doesn't take an impression as well as the bone used for the "heads" side which was prepared by sanding alone.

Although it's a bit fiddly and burning cuttlebone smells awful, this is a pretty good way of casting a detailed object and I expect I'll be doing more of it in the near future.

While the "tails" side isn't what I was going for initially, it's kind of nice to have two different sides to the coin so it can be flipped. If I end up using this for anything in particular, it'll probably be a dealer chip in poker games.

The original item (and so I'm assuming this thing too) is (c) Disney China. Given that I have no intentions of selling them, I can't imagine there would be any legal problems with the 2.5 of these I've made.