Visiting Royal Selangor @ Singapore

 This is a continuation of my  Singapore travelogue last Oct. 23-25, 2009. For prior details on this trip, please click the links below:

Singapore Arrival

Food Tripping at Tiong Bahru

Little India

Nuffnang Asia Pacific Blog Awards

    Bonding with the Boys @ Clarke Quay

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This day started with a scream. Yes, you read that right. My roomy (Frances)  and I didn’t hear our alarms go off that morning and right at the same exact second, we both woke up  with a jolt realizing that we were  super-duper late for the tour and a nano second later, screamed “Aaahhh!”. Nevertheless, this was still such a good day for me. The fact that I woke up ten minutes before the bus was about to leave for the day’s tour (my roomy and I actually thought the bus already left us), that I managed to dress up in flash, look awesome and feel great, these were blessings enough for me. Oh, Mica and Hannah were also kind enough to let me sit  beside them inside the bus. Thanks girls! You’re awesometastic! ^_^ Little did I know that  our first itinerary for that day would be at Royal Selangor in Clarke Quay where I was at just a few hours ago. It looked so peaceful and quiet in the morning. All the restaurants and bars were closed and we were the only group of tourists visiting the area that early morning.

Entering the Royal Selangor Gallery…

Royal Selangor is the world’s largest pewter company. Renowned for innovative designs and craftsmanship, they strive to create objects of desire in  precious pewter. What is pewter by the way? For those who don’t know, according to Wikipedia:

Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally between 85 and 99 percent tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and lead. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. It has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C, depending on the exact mixture of metals. The word pewter is probably a variation of the word spelter, a colloquial name for zinc.

A guided tour runs through the three sections of the Pewter Centre: The Pewter Gallery, Pewtersmithing Demonstration and Retail Floor. Our group was divided into two. I belonged to the first batch that went through the Pewtersmithing Demonstration. It was sooo cool! I thought it was going to be difficult, but with a little effort, making a pewter dish wasn’t really that hard to do.

In the Pewtersmithing Demonstration, we were afforded a firsthand view of and even participate in Royal Selangor’s pewter crafting processes.

 

For S$30 per person, one can enrol in the School of Hard Knocks, the most challenging class in Singapore! As an apprentice pewtersmith in this half-hour pewtersmithing workshop, we were taught how to create our very own pewter dish just as it was done by early pewtersmiths over a hundred years ago. We even got our own certificate upon completion of the course. Weeee! ^_^

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In the Pewter Gallery, we were taken back over a century to the founding of this enterprise and its subsequent growth. Other attractions include a Heritage section where the history of tin and a display of antique pewtersmithing tools and pewter are showcased.   

A visit to the Royal Selangor Centre was completed after we have been to the Retail Floor. A wide range of Royal Selangor’s award-winning designs and Comyns silverware awaited all of us. ^_^   

VISITOR INFORMATION:

Admission for the Tour Gallery is S$2 per person. At the end of each tour, visitors will be presented with a pewter souvenir as a memento of their visit. Entrance to the Retail Showroom is free. Opening hours are 9am - 9pm daily, including public holidays. No appointment is necessary unless registering for a session at the School of Hard Knocks.

HOW TO GET THERE:

The Royal Selangor Pewter Centre is easily accessible by taxi. If travelling by MRT, alight at the Clarke Quay station. By bus, take no. 54 from Scotts Road or 32 and 195 from City Hall MRT Station.

PHONE NUMBER: +65 6268 9600

FAX: +65 6268 6300

EMAIL: enquiry@royalselangor.com.sg

ADDRESS:

Royal Selangor Pewter Centre

3A River Valley Road #01-01, Clarke Quay,

Singapore 179020

 For more photos, please click here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34949&id=1619903650&l=0b0e537285

To be continued…