JEWELRY Articles 2 min read

Free eBook: How to Create with Metal Clay

Join us at Maker Festivals Colorado, the ultimate crafting extravaganza in Loveland from April 10-13, 2024, where the beloved Yarn Fest evolves with an exciting addition of beads and jewelry artists!

An example of the beautiful patterns you can create by mixing metal clays.

Noël Yovovich is a contributing author to Jewelry Making Daily and Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist.

I grew up hearing, "There's nothing new under the sun," "The more things change, the more they're the same," and so on. 

Well, if that was ever true, that was before the invention of metal clay. 

If you have tried metal clay, or even read about it, you already know it really is something new. A medium that you can work like clay, with simple tools, directly in metal-well, that just never existed before. 

It started with Precious Metal Clay (PMC) in silver and gold, then Art Clay Silver. A decade later, we started to get base metal clays-first BronzClay, then CopprClay, and now there are multiple brands and types, including steel clay and even stainless steel clay. 

The very most recent arrival, expected on the market next month, is PMC Pro, which is 90% silver and the rest "secret magic ingredients," according to the guys from Mitsubishi Materials

at the recent PMC conference.  

I got a chance to see some finished pieces and talk to artists who got the first crack at trying it, and it sounds terrific to use. It fires in an hour at 1400F in carbon. It looks a bit less white than what we're used to but seems amazingly strong and dense. 

A Little Help Can Help a Lot
So with all these new materials, we all want to combine them, right?

The editors of Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist are all over that. And it's a good thing, too, because it is not necessarily easy to do. The different clays need different temperatures, they shrink different amounts, and some need to be fired in carbon.

I'll confess that, when I set out to do a jewelry project that combined types of metal clay, I struggled to get it to work. I'm pretty pleased with the technique I eventually came up with, and now you can have that article and more in a free eBook, 3 Free Metal Clay Jewelry Making Projects: Make Jewelry with Precious Metal Clay, Art Clay, and Other Metal Clays. 

The techniques in each of these projects are as different as the artists who created them.

Wire Wrapped Metal Clay Bouquet
Paula Bastian-de Leon shows you how to put together a whole bouquet of flowers, using quilling, an ancient paper technique, and your choice of metal clays.

Married Metal Clay Ring
My own contribution uses copper clay and silver clay to create a ring with a marriage-of-metals look.

Mixed Metal Clay Earrings
Hadar Jacobson sparks up a pair steel clay earrings with a bright dollop of inlaid bronze.

You don't have to sort out for yourself how to use different clays together-the authors take you through it one step at a time. So get your free eBook today! Try one, try them all-pretty soon you'll be finding your own ways to make multi-metal pieces that are uniquely your own. There's never been a more exciting time to try something that truly is new under the sun!

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