The other day worked on a project with art clay, actually PMC3. It was so fun! I made pendants by making impressions with clear stamps, both letters and ornaments.

The stickyness…

Precious metal clay is sticky as you might have heard. It’s like pottery clay, I was surprised it’s so different from air-dried clays or polymer clay. Always mist the clay lightly when you’re working, otherwise it will dry quickly. I use the mini mister from about 10 cm away. (GET it, you will need it!) This is the most important thing with PMC clay. It’s necessary to put a light coat of badger balm or olive oil on your hands, on the workspace and on all the tools touching the wet clay.

Workspace

 

How I did it

I took a piece of the precious metal clay (PMC3) from the package, (closing it again right after, to prevent it from drying out). Then I rolled out a 3-card thick piece of clay with the acrylic rod on top of two stacks of playing cards laying on both sides of the clay. (To make a stack: Glue 3 cards on top of each other, preferably in advance.) Then I mounted my clear stamp and made the impression. After that I cut of the access clay on the sides with a slicer, as you can see in the picture of the work space. To make the edges more even I used a craft knife.

I can highly recomend clear stamps, check them out! They are GREAT with precious metal clay. You will get perfect impressions, and at the same time they are very simple to both use and clean.

Mug-warmer

 

Drying

When I had impressed and cut out the pendant I made the necessary holes with a toothpick. (its easy to enlarge holes after drying by drilling with a craft knife) Then it was time to put it on my mug-warmer for drying (get one of these, they work great!). It only took about an half-hour or so for it to be completely dry. That’s much faster than just leaving it to dry in the air, which might take hours!

Refining

When dried you can feel that the edges are pretty sharp at places. So you need to get rid of that before burning the piece. I refined the edges with diamond needle files, but it’s also possible to use nail files. Remember to soften the edges a bit more than you want it to be, since the clay will shrink when you burn it!

Firing

Firing

Now its time to fire the piece. Do this some place that’s well ventilated, I used my kitchen area under the fan. Put your piece on a fire brick and bring the butane torch. Torches works great for burning metal clay, as long as your piece doesn’t exceed 25 grams.

Lay the piece on the fire brick and put the fan on. Now you can light the torch. Slowly approach the piece with the flame and hover in circles over it. Soon a flame will appear on the clay, it will burn of in a few seconds.

Depending on the size of the item, it will need around 5 minutes (after it began glowing light orange) to fuse the particles in the clay. Don’t be afarid to burn it too long, in fact you can’t fire it for too long. Actually, Too long is better than too short, as to short might make it fragile and it might possibly even break (it happen to me a few times). When your done, let it cool on the brick. It will be extremely hot, so don’t touch it too soon.

Burnishing

To find the shiny silver you need to burnish it with a brass brush. It’s so exciting to brush the silver!! You almost can’t beleve it’s there underneath that unpolished muddy surface… It only takes a few strokes until you will see it emerging. Brush until its completely silver colored everywhere.

More shine

Add more shine to the silver by using a stainless steel spoon. On the pendants I rubbed with the edge of the spoon to get the highlighted areas to shine. Be careful not to push too hard! It might get crooked. 

The Result

I ended up with several fabolous pendants. Im so pleased, precious metal clay is wonderful to work with especially if you are into jewelry making. Try PMC or Art Clay! Once you get started you will not be able to stop.

What you need

There are many good books about metal clay, but Metal Clay In A Day  is my absolute FAVORITE. It’s WONDERFUL when you´re just starting out with PMC! Simple step-by-step instructions and great pictures. The suggested tools in the book are very much what you already have at home, which makes it SO much easier to get started. Go get it! I can’t tell you how much this book has helped me!

These are the tools i used for this project:

• Badger Balm
• Mug-warmer
• Craft knife
• Acrylic rod
• Mini mister
• Super slicer
• Clear stamps alphabet
• Clear stamp with ornament
• Diamond needle file
• Fire brick
• Butane torch
• Brass brush
• Stainless steel spoon
• Playing cards

Related posts:

1. 5 Minute Precious Metal Clay Silver Earrings
2. PMC3 Precious metal clay Silver
3. Precious Metal Clay Jewelry (PMC 3)
4. Metal Clay Silver Jewelry for Men
5. Silver Necklace from the Laguna