Precious Metal Clay

This weekend I took a class

from my new friend

Bronwyn Evans

at her studio

"BE"

She has been making jewelry with Precious metal clay

for about 10-12 years now.

I had never heard of it until I met her

and couldn't wrap my head around what it was until I took this class.

You can visit

The Precious Metal Clay Guild website

to learn more about it

but the interesting thing to me

was that it is made from silver by-product that

Mitsubishi Corporation

wanted to put to use....

and they hired someone to develop this!

We spent a great 1/2 a day working on our pieces...

I didn't take photos but Bronwyn has an amazing home

on a riverfront near here

and an amazing  inspiring view from the studio!

Here are the pieces that

I made as a Metal Clay Virgin...

 

I did not take photos of the process so I could concentrate

plus my hands were not camera safe!

But basically you shape, press, mold your pieces

and then let them dry

we used a dehydrator to speed up the process...

Then

clean up the edges with a file

and place them in the kiln to fire them

They are white when they go in

and once they come out and cool

you can scrub them with a brass brush

and / or even put them in a tumbler

and like magic

they are silver!

The piece above was polished only...

( I put that awful string on just to show where the charm hole was)

This set was aged with sulphur and then polished again

with a fine rubbing powder...

I wanted to be able to see the design better

and the sulphur makes the design stand out...

This pair was aged the same way

The pattern was achieved with what looks like a tiny rolling pin.

You have to have a kiln to fire these so

not something you can at home unless you have one or know someone

who does. 

If you can find anyone who is near you

who teaches a class in this I would definitely recommend it!



I had a great time

and would definitely do it again!

Please remember about the journals for my

Stocking Stuffer gifting...

I could really use some help

I plan to work on them during Thanksgiving...

If you didn't hear about it check here...

http://thefinderskeeper.blogspot.com/2011/11/journal-donations.html

Thanks so much and Happy Tuesday!