By Sarafina Zhang — CCHS Correspondent
Inspired by the iconic Minute Man statue and the upcoming Concord250 celebration, Concord animator Todd Taylor’s handcrafted pewter figurines not only honor the past but create new traditions, one meticulously crafted piece at a time.
A stroll to statue-making
Taylor grew up in Andover and went on to work for nearly 20 years in animation, visual effects for movies, and virtual reality. His family moved to Concord in January 2021.
At first, he did virtual reality development remotely but decided to take a break.
A random stroll around town led to his founding Minuteman Pewter: “I was walking by the Minuteman statue one day [and] I was thinking, ‘Wow, it would be really great to have a little statue version of that on my desk.’”
When he got home, he searched online but wasn’t satisfied with the results, “so I said, ‘I’m going to make myself one then. If I can’t find one, I will make one.’”
Making statues appealed to him as a man who’d “spent a lot of [his] career looking at screens.”
Having worked on blockbuster films such as Superman, Spider-man, Shrek, and Madagascar, “I was used to making characters, but none that I could touch.”
Taylor researched materials such as bronze and resin but settled on pewter — a softer alloy primarily consisting of tin — as best for his figurines.
To learn how to work with pewter, he admits, he “YouTubed the heck out of it.”
After he taught himself the basics, he found others in the industry who could help answer his questions. It wasn’t easy, he says. “This art has been a little lost… a lot of manufacturing has gone overseas.”
A complex art
Taylor works in a home studio. His process is complex, consisting of three main steps.
First, he makes a detailed 3D scan using photogrammetry — creating a model of an object based on a series of pictures — that gets printed into resin. Next, he employs spin casting, a metalworking technique that uses centrifugal force to shape molten pewter inside a rotating rubber mold.
Last, after the pewter solidifies, Taylor applies finishing touches by hand to ensure every little detail is expressed in the final product.
His favorite piece so far: A wine bottle stopper.
One of the best parts of running Minuteman Pewter is simply “getting to know people around town,” Taylor says.
“Everyone has just been super nice and great, especially since my family moved here during Covid,” he says. “For a couple years, everyone was just behind masks and isolated, so this was a really good opportunity to get out there in the community.”
Plus, “It’s also just fun knowing that people around town have my stuff at their home now.”
Taylor recalls when a newly married couple who had just moved to Concord came to his holiday booth and bought one of his pieces as their first ornament for their Christmas tree.
“Now they have that forever,” he said. “Every Christmas, they’ll take that out and remember their first Christmas here in Concord.”
Celebrating 250
Taylor also draws inspiration from Concord’s upcoming 250th commemoration of the start of the Revolution.
“Lots of tourists are coming into the town, and we can provide them with little figurine statues of our most famous icon,” he says. “And the fact that it’s actually made in Concord is a big deal,” Taylor says.
To learn more, visit: www.minutemanpewter.com.
