0 A Trip to Royal Selangor

My aunt paid me a visit recently - I enjoy having guests but....after all the shopping complexes, where else could I take my aunt to in KL? ;)

I searched the net..and had my doubts but why not?....and so we headed to the Royal Selangor Visitor Center.

At the entrance, we were greeted with the largest pewter made tankard in the world. It was an amazing start to the tour...and the ever friendly Royal Selangor guide made the journey even more memorable with his excellent knowledge and helpfulness. I have to say, from the receptionist to the guides and every employee we met, I found all of them to be extremely courteous.

The journey began with a visit to the Pewter museum and the gallery. We saw many pewter made pieces such as tin money, a replica of KLCC, a life sized crocodile, etc.

This is a picture of the Royal Selangor craftsman's handprints - all having worked there for more than 5 years.

Tour guide on the right. My aunt observing how handles are made. It seems that a Royal Selangor employee can makes hundreds per day. ....phew!
My aunt trying to knock a design onto a pewter mug, without much success - a very steady hand is required.
We were also served drinks in cool pewter mugs before proceeding to the next point, which was the factory - look how neat it is!
Finally, we reached the Royal Selangor 'School of Hard Knocks' where we signed up to experience pewter making oursleves. You have to register in advance, which we did, and it costs RM50 per head. The experience was worth it for me.

Check out tools we had to use to knock our pewter into shape and to engrave our initials:

We were also provided with a cool looking apron to wear. At the end of the session, we graduated with a certificate:

And here's the finished product, which we got to bring home:

Things that didn't go quite right:

1) Knocking somebody else's initials onto your flat pewter plate ...muahahaha..my aunt did this! ;) She wasn't listening to the instructor.

2) Not having a steady hand, resulting in your initials being hammered in a crooked line.

3) Knocking the plate too hard to mould it into a bowl, resulting in more dents than necessary to the already unsightly work of art ;p

4) Washing the now almost complete bowl too hard with a rough sponge ...mmm..nice scratch marks...obviously didn't wash it nicely in circular motion as the marks were all over..*slap face*

My conclusion : It was a wonderful experience and I wouldn't hesitate recommending the tour to everyone else.