[gdenby]

If the item is not intended for heavy use, how 'bout this. Carve the desired shape. Wrap in pewter wire. Use a buffing wheel and smooth it. Might not need any abrasive, just the heat of the wheel fabric against the alloy. Then put a few scuffs on the smoothed surface, and expose to a tarnishing agent.Or perhaps peen the surface as if is were silver plate. Buff to clean some tarnish away.

FWIW, really old silver is black from oxidization. I once cleaned a silver service that had sat in a wooden crate for about 80 years. It was almost pitch black, but had blue and purple glints rather like it had been anodized in some fashion.

 

[gdenby]

While looking over wire samples online, I also noticed one site where they offered thin pewter sheets. There were pics of the sheets formed into small cups.

Pewter is mostly tin and lead, w. various additions to make it somewhat harder. Otherwise too soft for implements. I had a metal serving plate that I didn't know was pewter, and it collapsed thru the oven shelf when I left it in a 300-ish oven to keep a steak warm. Its just a guess, but having buffed a number of metals, I suspect wire would both smear from the pressure and soften from the heat.

The other thing I have been looking at is various epoxies designed for metal repair. I've found that there is a variety of J-B weld that has quite a bit of steel in it. I've worked w. epoxy putties before, and found them easily formed. Don't know if the surface would buff up to a metallic sheen.