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Precious Metal Clay Jewelry

Making Your Own Fine Jewelry

Fun with Precious Metal Clay

Precious metal clay is simply amazing!

When I took a Precious Metal Clay (PMC) class with jewelry artist, Lauri Jensen, I expected to be able to write a tutorial afterwards.

I had Lauri’s permission to take photos during class and she knew my intention. As I took notes and documented the whole process, I started to realize how much is involved - way too much for a tutorial written by a PMC neophyte.

So instead of a tutorial, I would just like to share my experience for anyone who is interested in giving PMC a try.

I definitely want to do more with PMC. My next step will be to sign up for Lauri’s advanced class.

Here are a few of Lauri’s pieces in various stages of completion.

From left to right: a PMC textured piece mounted on dichroic glass (also made by Lauri); a serendipitous abstract pendant (more on this later); a finished pendant with another interesting story to it; and a fired PMC pendant before adding patina and polishing.

The abstract pendant was a blob of leftover clay from another student’s project. Lauri was rolling it around absentmindedly and pressed it down onto one of the textured templates.

When she peeled it off to put back into a sealed package, she liked what she saw, added a bale and fired it.

The corner of the star pendant broke off while firing but Lauri liked the asymmetry and kept this one too. It definitely helps to have an artist’s eye!

What is Precious Metal Clay?

Precious Metal Clay is a trademarked clay made by Mitsubishi Materials.

PMC is available in silver, gold, copper and bronze. Because of the precious metal content, silver and gold PMC are pretty pricey.

The 9 g pack (pictured) which we used in class is just enough for a pendant (1 ¼-inch square) and costs between $15 and $20.

Silver PMC3 is clay made of 90% fine silver powder, distilled water and organic binder. The consistency is a little softer than polymer clay.

It is very easy to work. And did I mention fun?

The water evaporates and firing burns off the binder, leaving a solid silver piece (.999 compared to .925 which is the hallmark of fine silver). In the process, 12% shrinkage occurs.

The shrinkage needs to be considered as you design a piece.

Silver PMC3 fires at a relatively low temperature (700 C or 1290 F) so that a small kiln like the Paragon SC2 (about $550) or an Ultra-Lite Beehive kiln (about $150) will do the job.

It is possible to fire PMC with a butane torch or a hot pot, though that sounds a bit scary to me.

Making Precious Metal Clay Jewelry

With just-washed hands (to remove any dirt or other contaminants), a small amount of olive oil is rubbed onto hands. Then the clay is rolled into a ball and placed on a Teflon sheet to be rolled flat.

A two-playing card thickness is about right for a flat pendant, so playing cards are used here to create a channel for rolling.

A rubber design template is selected and the portion to be used for the design is brushed with olive oil.

This illustrates how the template creates a mirror image imprint on the clay. You can also see that the fired piece is a tiny bit smaller than the template design due to shrinkage.

The flat piece of PMC is pressed onto the template with care taken to press the entire surface into the template recesses.

Here is my pendant with the words "cherish" and "love" imprinted separately and attached with slip, made (or purchased) of PMC shavings mixed with distilled water. Given the cost of PMC, even the tiniest bits are put to use.

Slip is also used to fill any cracks.

The hole in the upper right corner of the "cherish" plaque is for a gemstone to be glued on later.

This is the back of my pendant after stamping ".999" and attaching a bale supported by the handle of a paintbrush until it sets up.

When the PMC has air-dried to leather hardness, it is set on a firing stone or tile with the bale supported/protected on a bed of fire paper. Drying can be hastened with a blow drier if desired.

After kiln-firing (10 to 30 minutes depending on kiln temperature), you are left with solid silver that is the color of pickled wood.

Any rough edges are smoothed with superfine steel wool. Then the piece is washed clean and tumbled for 12 to 14 hours to harden and shine the silver.

I chose to add Black Magic patina just to the word plaques to make the letters stand out. Then the gemstone was glued into the hole with two-part epoxy.

You can learn more about Precious Metal Clay at New Mexico Clay or - do like I did and - take a class!

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