Hello! So I’ve been away for quite a long time and I’m really feeling out of practice! Over here in (rather grey) Bath, UK, I have been experiencing Mum guilt of the worst kind! Both my husband and I started new jobs and the children went back to school, which meant a flurry of Mum being the taxi driver to all of their different after school activities. Anyway, something had to give, and unfortunately (for me!), it was my jewellery making activities. However, with my daughter’s birthday just around the corner, I managed to find one day to pop out to the workshop and make her a little birthday gift, using silver metal clay, which I’ve never used before! So, here’s a little blog post on how I got on (or rather, what not to do!)
What is Silver Metal Clay?
So, just what is silver metal clay or Precious Metal Clay (PMC)?
Well, according to Wikipedia, PMC is a crafting medium, consisting of very small particles such as silver, gold, bronze or copper mixed with an organic binder and water for use in making jewellery, beads and small sculptures. It’s been around since the 90s. Nowadays, it’s a very popular jewellery making medium and you can see lots and lots of examples of jewellery made form PMC on Instagram. Here’s one of my favourites: @dogstarsilver
Silver metal clay seems to be quite a versatile material, allowing you to create the design in clay – mouldings and shaping it as you please. Provided the clay hasn’t dried out, you can pretty much do as you please with it. Then the clay needs to be dried out before it’s fired. The majority of jewellers seem to use a kiln to keep the firing temperature even, but my research indicated it was also possible to fire the piece with a hand torch. I was quite happy with that since I have no desire to fork out for a kiln (a basic kiln seems to start from about £360! So a bit of an investment!)
Jumping Straight into Using Some Silver Metal Clay
My daughter is a huge (and I mean huge!) unicorn fans… We have unicorn everything at home, from bed sheets to t-shirts to soft toys! So of course, her present needed to be unicorn themed!
Given I’m not particularly confident in my ability to craft things in clay, I opted for the easy-way out… I bought a unicorn mould! I opted for a silicon mould that can be used for things like cake decorations. After some hunting around online for something small enough to work as a charm, I ended up with this fab mould from Christine’s Molds, which shipped quickly from Canada and was the perfect size:
To prepare the mould, I brushed in some olive oil with a paintbrush. I then attempted to roll the clay out with a rolling pin, but soon decided that it was pretty pointless. So I just pressed it into the mould. I’m probably proving that I’m a Mum here, but for me, the clay feels pretty much like Play-Doh! You don’t want the clay to dry out while you’re working with it. So wrap any unused pieces in clingfilm until you’re ready to use it. That said, I was using PMC flex, which doesn’t dry out at room temperature.
Refining the Clay
After I’d pressed the clay into the mould, the moment of truth arrived… turning it out and checking to see if it took the unicorn print. I admit, I was nervous! But I didn’t need to be! The clay is really good at taking impressions from things.
After I’d pressed the clay into the mould, the moment of truth arrived… turning it out and checking to see if it took the unicorn print. I admit, I was nervous! But I didn’t need to be! The clay is really good at taking impressions from things.
At this point, it became really clear to me that I didn’t know what I was doing! I really wanted to smooth out the cracks on the main body of the unicorn. I tried various methods. Firstly, I used a blending brush to attempt to smooth it out. I also used a little water to see if wetting the clay a bit would help me to smooth the surface. It sort of worked, but I think I might have had a better outcome if I’d just rolled it up and started again (one of the great things about using clay!).
Drying Out the Clay
Once I was happy with the charm, I needed to dry it out. For the PMC Flex that I was using, the clay is dried out in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. Having never used PMC before, I had no idea at what point to try and remove the excess clay from around the unicorn shape. Should it be before drying, after drying or after firing?! I sat and thought about it for a really long time, before getting a sharp stylus and removing as much of the excess material as I could.
You can also see that I embedded a jump ring into this one. To be honest, I had no idea whether I should attempt to put a jump ring in now, or whether to attempt to solder one on later. Hence, I made two unicorn charms to experiment both ways. It turned out, it was better to solder the jump ring on afterwards. Unfortunately, I melted the jump ring whilst trying to fire the clay charm. Oops! Live and learn, I guess!
Here are my two charms after they’d been dried in the oven. One with a jump ring and one without.
After a few forum discussions, I’ve since learnt that I should have filed the unicorn shapes at this point and smoothed out the edges now (carefully!). It would have saved me a lot of work later after they’d turned into solid sterling silver charms…
Firing the Silver Metal Clay
As I mentioned, I don’t have a kiln so my firing was using my trusty handheld butane torch. Now, here comes my moment of stupidity! I had done my reading and recalled that people said to heat the piece until you get a pale pink glow. Then, keep it there for 3-4 minutes and let the piece cool off. But, my over-thinking brain kicked in. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how it would turn silver after the firing. So I kept heating and heating until the charms turned silver! Which resulted in slightly melted pieces.
As you heat the piece, it will start to catch fire as the binding materials burn away. It looks quite alarming the first time you do it! Like your carefully crafted work is going up in flames! Don’t worry it’s normal! BUT it does release a lot of fumes, so you need a well-ventilated area. Wow, does it smell bad!!!
This is the colour I think you’re aiming for when you’re firing up a silver metal clay piece. If it gets too hot, take the torch away, but you want it at this colour for 3-4 minutes to burn away the binding material fully.
How Not to Fire Your Silver Metal Clay!
As you can see, I went way beyond the initial pink stage. I kept going until my silver was molten… not a good look! In truth, I must have heated my pieces for a good 13 minutes, which is way more than needed.
Cleaning Up the Piece
So, by the time I was done with firing, I’d lost a lot of the definition in the unicorns. The surface of the silver charm was also very rough. Sad times… you definitely don’t want to repeat what I did!
It took a lot of work to file and polish the unicorns off to a reasonably presentable state. I used flexible PMC sanding pads, which I suspect are just more durable than regular sanding paper, as well as a range of files to tidy up the edges. If you recall me saying earlier that I should have filed the pieces before I fired them – this was why! The edges are extremely rough at this point and not wearable, at all!
After all the sanding and filing, I was left with a cute, little charm – not perfect by any stretch, but recognisable as a unicorn.
Making the Rest of the Necklace
The rest of the necklace was made from a small piece of silver sheet, cut into the shape of a heart. I textured the heart with a texturing hammer and then soldered on a bezel, made from fine silver. I kept things simple by drilling a hole in the corner and adding a jump ring to attach it to the necklace. The stone is a blue topaz purchased from Gemworld Online. Again, I was really pleased with this supplier as communication was good and my stones arrived quickly.
I decided that I wanted the unicorn and heart to hang together, so I made a quick textured silver ring from round sterling silver wire (it was really nice to make a ring that didn’t need to be sized particularly!)After that, it was a simple job of attaching everything together and giving it all a good polish.
Birthday Girl!
And here is the final necklace, hanging around the neck of the Birthday Girl, who was super-chuffed with her present!
It’s by no means perfect, and I have lot to learn about silver metal clay. That said, I’m really excited by the possibilities that clay presents for design work (especially for someone like me, who is extremely challenged in piercing out anything more complex than a square!). Stay posted for a full video on a beginner’s attempts at using silver metal clay (also known as “what not to do”!)
I have a few new videos in the pipeline after taking quite a long break, so feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel and avoid missing out! For more project ideas, check out my YouTube page!
PS Leave me a comment and share your silver clay experiences with me!
