I have always wanted to visit the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre but I never got the chance. This year’s school holiday – I made it a point to check out the website – find out more about their workshops etc and booked a slot for my daughter and me. Only two of us – since the other two are too young to appreciate the place.
Location & Opening Hours
The visitor centre is located at Setapak Jaya. The place is quite big and there is ample parking space. The place is opened from 9am – you can grab a quick breakfast/coffee at the cafe before you go on your tour/workshop.
What to Expect
Museum with Guided Tour
Admission is free, you will also be given a guided tour around the place (you also have the option of an audio tour). Your guide will take you through the small museum and share the history of the founder, the company and the tin mining process back in the day.
Live Demonstration
Next, you will walk over to the factory area where you can see demonstration of how a Pewter product is made – the casting, polishing, finishing and hammering (making the tiny designs/details on the pewter). What’s cool about Royal Selangor is that – yes they make the products using moulds but all the small details are done by hand. Most of the people on the floor worked here for many years – and those years of training enabled them to produce such beautiful detailing. And interestingly most of the staff are women.
Workshop
Before we came, I had already booked us slots for the Foundry workshop. There are two workshops to choose from – School of Hard Knocks and The Foundry.
School of Hard Knocks
This workshop is suitable for those visiting with children below 15. Basically, you will be given a Pewter piece and you then ‘knock’ it into shape. This is a 30min slot for RM65 – kids will have a blast and you can keep your Pewter dish as souvenir.
The Foundry
This is where you get to make your own Pewter jewellery or key chain or paperweight. Or if you are good in doing stuff without moulds – by all means – make a bracelet or something. Basically – you will get a workstation with melted tin, and you pour these into various moulds provided. Once the piece has hardened, you do your own polishing and finishing. You also get to keep a few pieces as souvenirs. Really fun! The session is RM180 for an hour.
Shopping
The showroom here has some articles that I have never seen in other outlets. If you want to shop for gifts – this is a great place to do just that. Pieces that I think people should checkout … (I love Pewter – I have a few of these myself, yes – I am so into these things…)
- The Four seasons collection – love the vases and beakers
- Teapots from various collections (the melon teapot is of course gorgeous, also the Imperial Seal teapot)
- The beautiful pewter fruits – especially the durian – see the picture below
- The British Museum collection – I love the Hound Head Letter Opener – great idea for gifts for men and its affordable too!
- Licensed collectibles – Royal Selangor did a a great move collaborating with companies like Marvel, Warner Brothers and Disney. Checkout their Batman Limited Edition figurine – beautiful (only 3,000 pieces – a few left)! The Darth Vader Limited Edition (5,000 created for worldwide distribution were soldout ages ago). If you can’t afford the limited edition pieces, they have the normal Batman, Spiderman, Captain America figurines and so on. Gorgeous collection!
I could go on and on – better stop there..
Cafe
After your tour and workshop, you can also grab lunch at the cafe. They have daily specials, cakes and ice cream.
Cool Place to Visit
Really enjoyed my day out here. Recommended to anyone and everyone- suitable for families with small children or just a couple of adults looking to do something a bit different.
Checkout below pictures – a few pieces from my own collection…
Link to Royal Selangor Visitor Centre.
Link to Royal Selangor online shopping site.
