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Luis Martinez Gallardo

"Hello, my name is Luis Martinez. I’m the industrial designer and, together, Jose Barbedillo and I created this business. Our workshop began in 1993. We’ve grown little by little and today we have a more productive business. We export to various parts of the world - even distributing some products to renowned department stores in the United States. I’m going to explain a little of the crafting process for my aluminum products.

"First a model is made from acrylic, wood, or whatever other strong material, and a mold of it is is made from sand. The first piece is cast from aluminum and, from this original, we make a sand mold for each piece. These molds have to be made very carefully so that we obtain only the best quality. Hand-made products are never exactly the same in size or color, but we try our absolute best to make them the same size. The sand has to be solidly compacted so that the piece will have the best result and finish.

"The mold is cleaned and some holes are left in the surface to pour in liquid aluminum. During this process the aluminum should be melted at a certain temperature. Once the aluminum has been in the model for ten to fifteen minutes the piece is then ready, and the mold is broken to take it out. After this, the piece needs to smoothed and polished to give it the brilliant characteristics of pewter. Each piece is made from a new sand mold made from the aluminum master copy, and this makes each piece individual and unique."