Presents and casting

Haven't been showing many new things on the blog lately - sorry for that. The reason is that I've been busy making presents for people - so can't show them until after Christmas! Had to ship them to Santa in plenty of time....

I also had a request this week to quote on making 200 charms! Yes, it was just earlier this month I was talking about moving into more commission charm work - and here is this request! So I've been figuring out how I can do this - and do I want to do this! I've spent the week learning alot about casting.
I tried casting once before on Little Bo Peep and it didn't come out well. There was a lot of detail on the piece, as you can see in the photos, but the cast pieces weren't as good and seemed to lose their form...... I think because the original piece was hollow......and I didn't get much feedback/advice from the casters. However some other metal clay artists gave me names of casters they had used.
It's an interesting process. I would make one master version of the charm and finish it fully. Then send it to the caster who makes a mold of it and then creates however many copies of it. Different casters then do differing amounts of finishing work for you - but I think with 200 pieces, I'd want them finished! I can't imagine polishing 200 tiny charms myself! That is not why I like making jewelry!!!

Anyhow - I have a better handle on it and feel more comfortable this time. So we'll see how this progresses. Even if I don't do this project, I spoke to such a helpful guy at a casting company not far away, that I think I'll try something with him....maybe get one of my pieces cast in gold for myself?????

Hope you are all dealing with the Christmas chaos and finding time for fun, family and friendship.