Sandy Griffiths
Welcome to my online pewter class! Once the pewter bug has bitten you it is very difficult to let it
go. All you need to have fun is the passion to learn and the will to experiment with this soft metal
that is so willing to be bent, moulded and embossed into all sorts of exciting shapes.
There is no limit to how you can embellish pewter with paints, patinas, inks, metal leaf, crystals and
all sorts of interesting arty stuff … to make beautiful pewter art. Just allow yourself to be creative!
I have taught art and crafts for many years. Private tuition in fine art, informal art workshops and
courses in fabric painting soon had me confident enough to start running my own fabric painting
classes. My love of colour and painting is what pushed me in the direction of leaving the corporate
world and opening up a fabric painting studio in the early 2000’s. In those early days I also taught
children’s craft classes and looking back, those kids were my best teachers.
Always looking for something new to try, I started working with pewter. I took classes with one of
the doyennes of pewter repousse, who then stopped teaching for personal reasons. At that stage
there were no other pewter embossing teachers in Cape Town, where I live, nor was there much in
the written word to learn from. The internet was in its toddler stages and social media had not yet
been discovered!
I spent hours experimenting with and teaching myself this beautiful metal craft before starting to
teach others. Back then we didn’t have all the fabulous tools available today, I used to cut my
pewter out using the pointy tip of a mathematical compass. I was once given a very special set of
hand-blown glass tools, that were used by someone’s grandmother in the 1940’s. From hand blown
glass to silicon tips tools, I am still producing art with this wonderful stylish metal and more than two
decades later have yet to run out of ideas or inspiration.
In 2006 my first book ‘Easy Pewter Projects” was published in South Africa, in both English and
Afrikaans. This book went international and was reprinted regularly. It was published in Canada, the
UK and USA under the title ‘Pewter Plus’.
I went on to write 3 more books, on the art of pewter, all which went into reprint in South Africa and
also did very well on the international market.
I now specialise as a pewter teacher, teaching 4 classes a week from my studio on the slopes of
Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. My love of colour and my love of animals shows in my
work. If you look carefully at my work you will often see a little animal, a bug or a bird tucked into a
corner of my artwork. There should always be something extra for those who look carefully!
I enjoy doing many forms of designs from the traditional through to completely off the wall.
Perhaps, however I am best known for my offbeat, quirky ladies who are usually adorned in metal
leaf or bright happy colours.
Please have a look through the courses and projects that are offered on my website. I have graded
them from beginners to easy to advanced and have made sure that there is something here for
everybody’s skill level and taste in design.
My beginners course is carefully constructed to make sure that you will master the techniques of
working with pewter. Once you have worked through my beginners exercise and perhaps completed
the intermediate or advanced courses that capture your fancy, let yourself go!
I have made sure that all of the techniques that you will need to understand to be comfortable
working with pewter are covered. So please take advantage of this type of learning. If you are not
quite sure of something, go back and watch it again, and if you totally understand … you can just fast
forward. Nobody is watching you!
Feel free to experiment with the colours that you love, create your own backgrounds and come up
with your own ideas. I will help you to reach this stage by taking you through the projects and
guiding you every step of the way, but it is, after all, your artwork so own it.
And most importantly have fun!