Silver Clay Jewellery

My good friend Jessica Emmett bought me some silver art clay (or metal clay) for Christmas, along with a blow torch and tools. I'd heard of silver clay before but never tried it, so I decided to buy a book on how to use it. The book I bought was "Magical Metal Clay Jewellery" by Sue Heaser. It has some exciting looking projects in it, most of which can be done using a blowtorch rather than a kiln. Whilst I could have jumped straight in a home and tried out the projects, I thought it might be a good idea to gain some practical experience before using my own clay, so I had a look for a course at London Jewellery School. I found the Beginners Metal Clay course, which I attended this weekend.  

The tutor was Sima Vaziry. Sima started by explaining what metal clay is and then talked us through three different projects. Metal clay originated in Japan. It is a clay that contains small particles of metal and a binder. It can be moulded into shapes and once dry can be fired using a blow torch, kiln or on a stove. After firing the white binder is brushed away to reveal pure metal, which is 99.9% pure silver!  You can also buy gold and bronze metal clay.

The first project we worked on was a pair of earrings. As a test, we used some Fimo (polymer clay) to work out what we we wanted the finished design to look like. We used a texture sheet, like the ones shown here. On top of the texture sheet you need to put a pile of four playing cards on either side. Make sure you grease your hands with Badger Balm (not made from badgers!) or olive oil, and everything the clay will come into contact with as this stops it sticking to your clay. Roll the metal clay into a ball and place it onto the texture sheet, then use a roller to roll it out to the thickness of the playing cards. Use a cutter to cut out the shape you want. For my earrings I used two heart cutters - a large one and then a smaller one inside. I also created a small hole for the earring findings to go through.

Spray water on your left over clay and wrap it inside some oiled cling film to keep it moist. Metal clay dries out quickly so you need to do this to ensure you can use what you have left. 

Once I'd created my heart shapes in the clay, I sanded the edges until I was happy with them and then they went into a special drying machine to speed up the drying process. I'm not sure what this was called but at home you can leave it for 24 hours a room temperature or you can use a hairdryer or hot plate to speed up the drying process. The pieces turn white once they are dry and you need to ensure they have no moisture in them. You can test this by putting the piece into the lid of the Badger Balm and seeing if any condensation occurs when you move it from side to side. If there is no condensation then the piece is ready for firing. If the piece breaks, you can use metal clay paste to stick it back together, but you then need to dry this out again.

To fire the clay pieces we put them on a block and used a blow torch (whilst wearing safety googles!). When you heat the piece using the blow torch you will see a flame as if it has set on fire, then it will turn black and then white again. Once it turns orange you should time it for 2minutes 30 seconds while you move the blow torch over it. Be careful not to have the torch too close. If the piece starts to glow bright orange then it is melting and the torch is too close. Metal clay does shrink a little when it's fired so you need to take this into account when you are making things. Once the time is up carefully place the pieces into a bowl of cold water using tweezers. They will then be cold enough to handle.

The next stage is when the magic happens. The pieces are still white, but once you brush them with a brass brush they become silver! After this you can polish them using polishing paper and finally with a burnishing tool, which makes them very shiny.

Here are the heart earrings I made. You can see the bumpy texture created from the texture sheet:

After making these, I used the same technique to make this flower pendant, but attached a circular piece of clay on top, using metal clay paste, to ensure a thick enough part for a stone to be set into. I pressed the stone into the clay until the top surface was in line with the surface of the clay. If you don't set it in far enough it can shoot out at you when firing the clay. Only stones suitable for firing can be used as non heat resistant stones will just turn orange or black. Also, if your piece has a stone in it you can't put it into cold water after firing. You need to leave it somewhere for about 15 minutes until it has cooled.

The flower pendant I made was dipped in Liver of Sulpher mixed with warm water and rinsed with clear water to give it an antique effect. This process is called adding a patina. If you don't like the patina you can burn it off with a torch.

For the last part of the day we made our own moulds using a two part silicone moulding compound like the product shown here. You just need to roll a small amount of each part into a ball and knead them together until they are blue. Then you can stretch them over an object of your choice and leave it to harden. You can then use the mould to create a piece from metal clay. I created this teapot mould and the silver teapot charm below:

Festive gifts

Recently I've been busy making some gifts for friends and family to wear. My mum has always liked pandas so when I found this porcelain panda bead online at The Bead Shop Manchester, I had to buy it: http://www.the-beadshop.co.uk/beads-c491/porcelain-beads-c190/porcelain-animal-bead-4-p1419

I added it to some silver plated chain and combined this with some Swarovski stars and Millefiori hearts and round beads.

All of the beads were attached to the chain with headpins. You can buy these from most jewellery supply shops: http://www.beadsunlimited.co.uk/Headpin-SP/bo4095?sid=2750#item2750. A headpin is basically a thin stick of metal with a flat end at the end to stop beads from falling off. You thread it with beads and then cut above the last bead and create a loop using round nosed pliers. then you can attach them to a chain or an earring finding.

While searching for animal beads I came across these cute ceramic fox beads from Eljo's Habedashery on Folksy: http://folksy.com/items/2549281-3-x-Ceramic-Fox-Beads.

A friend of mine really likes foxes, so I thought some fox based jewellery would be a perfect gift for her. I began by creating some beaded Kumihimo using seed beads. I used colours I thought would tone well with the foxes. I glued the ends of the Kumihimo to some end caps and attached these to a chain.

I then threaded a fox bead onto a headpin with a bead at the bottom, to stop the fox from sliding over the end of the headpin. I attached this to the necklace using some ordinary sewing thread and some glue.

To match the necklace I attached the remaining two fox beads to some earwires using headpins and added beads to match the beads in the necklace.

I also made this necklace and earring set using the same methods as for the fox set. This incorporates a longer stretch of beaded Kumihimo.

 

More starry stuff!

I recently had a go at making these earrings, based on a project in Linda Jones' 'Making beautiful bead and wire jewellery'. The tutorial used different types of beads from the ones I have used here, but the effect is very similar. The hardest bit is getting the hoops to stay round. I still haven't worked this one out but I think maybe they need hammering to make them harder. I suppose not being perfectly round gives them a more handmade look!

Starry stuff

My lovely husband went to Hobbycraft yesterday and bought me some interesting beads, including little plastic stars. I've mixed them with pearl beads to create some starry earrings:

More bracelets!

This weekend is turning out to be quite productive. Since Friday night I have  made some chocolate and cherry muffins (chocolate muffin recipe from the Hummingbird bakery cookbook and is delicious), cooked this yummy greek dish http://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/spiced-lamb-steaks-with-lemony-chickpeas/1900?recipeId=1900&selectedCategories=1072%2C1037&, and made this bracelet and earrings for a friend:

During last week I also made this present for another friend (you'll know who you are when you receive it very soon!):

These are two more bracelets I made recently. This one was commissioned by a friend for a mother's day present:

...and this one I made recently after a visit to Hobbycraft, which is expensive but there are soooooo many beads!! I uses memory wire, which always retains its shape:

Beginners Beading

Today I went to my Beginners Beading day course at London Jewellery School. It was a fun day where we made bracelets, earrings and necklaces. Some of the things we were taught I'd already had a go at myself, but there were some techniques I didn't know and I'll definitely be trying them out at home. The tutor was really enthusiastic and helpful, so I think I might go back for other courses.

The first thing we made was a bracelet using elastic. This isn't that exciting but I learnt how hide the joining knot inside a bead:

Then we made bracelets using memory wire. This always springs back into shape, a bit like a slinky. I like this technique, although next time I might use less wire to make fewer coils.

From this we moved on to earrings. I've made earrings before but had bought my own ear wires (the bits you put through your ear). We were taught how to make our own ear wires, which is surprisingly simple and you only need to use one set of pliers (the round nosed ones). You need to file the ends of the wire too, otherwise they'll be too sharp to go through your ears:

Lastly, we made necklaces. The first is called an illusion necklace, using a wire called Tigertail. This is a metal wire with a nyclon coating. We also used crimps, which  are tiny beads you squeeze together using crimp tools. They keep your beads in place and crimp covers can also be used at the ends of your jewellery to hide a crimp bead. I made the clasps, using a similar technique to the one you use to make ear wires:

This is a necklace I made with a tassel, also using crimp beads but with nylon wire instead of tiger tail:

Wire wrapped beads

I just made these wire wrapped bead earrings for my sister to match the bracelet I made her (in the post below). I made them by creating two coils with the wire and then wrapping this around the bead. You can also do this using marbles, although I think it would be harder to keep them in place. You'd have to work out the exact length of wire needed. Anyway, I'm really pleased with these as a first attempt so will be trying this out again.

Bead threading and a coil hook fastener

Experimenting with the Daisy Chain beadweaving technique. You can make this using thread and a needle.

Earrings made using the Daisy Chain beadweaving technique. I made the daisies using very thing wire and then attached them to silver plated earwires.

This is an attempt at a single St. Petersburg chain, using beads and wire. You're meant to use thread, which I discovered is necessary when the wire snapped part way through! This style of chain is from Russia and is becoming more popular around the world.

A bracelet I made for my sister. I have made and added a coil hook fastener instead of using an already made t-bar fastener like the ones in the first bracelets I made. I think it looks more interesting.

The coil hook fastener

Some more bits and bobs

Here is some more jewellery I've made recently. I hope you like them.