From as far back as I can remember I have wanted to make things. A great part of what I enjoy is working out how to do something. And how to do it differently.
I have enjoyed private tuition in fine art, and taking part in informal art workshops. My love of colour and painting is what pushed me to leave the corporate world and open a fabric painting studio in the early 2000s.
In those early days, I taught children’s craft classes, and looking back, those kids were my best teachers. They were so unafraid and confident with their creativity. They did not see the barriers that I, as an adult, saw.
Always looking for something new to try, I started taking classes with one of the doyennes of pewter work, who then stopped teaching for personal reasons. At that stage, there were no other pewter teachers in Cape Town, where I live, nor was there much available on the subject in books. It was an opportunity that I grabbed with both hands.
The internet was in its infancy and social media and not yet been thought of! I spent hours teaching myself pewter craft by experimenting with this beautiful sheet metal before starting to teach others.
Back then we didn’t have all the fabulous tools that are available today. I used to cut my pewter out using the pointy tip of a mathematical compass and was completely excited when I was given a very special set of hand-blown glass tools, that were used by someone’s grandmother in the 1940’s.
No matter how the tools change with the times, what I love, is working with this wonderful stylish metal craft, which allows me to constantly come up with new ideas and adapt my creations.
In 2006 my first book ‘Easy Pewter Projects’ was published in South Africa, in both English and Afrikaans, and then internationally. This won me international acclaim and was reprinted regularly in Canada, the USA, and the UK where it was called ‘Pewter Plus.’
I went on to write 3 more books, all of which went into repeated reprints in South Africa and also did very well on the international market.
I now specialise as a pewter artist.
My love of colour and animals shows in my work. There is very often a little animal, bug, or bird tucked into a corner somewhere in my designs.
I enjoy doing many different forms of design. From the traditional to the quirky and am perhaps best known for my offbeat, imaginative ladies who are usually adorned in metal leaf or bright happy colours.
I have recently become inspired by ceramic statues. I have spent hours exploring this idea as traditionally embossed pewter, due to its soft form, needs to be secured to a firm surface.
My challenge was how to make free-standing embossed pewter statues that I could see in my mind’s eye. It all came together when I discovered that I could sandwich Polymer clay between two pieces of my embossed pewter designs.
I hope that you enjoy my work as much as I did making them!
Sandy.
Sandy Griffiths Pewter 