Silver Jewellery Course

                                  Silver clay bead      

If you remember from the last blog I posted I told you I wanted to write about a silver bead made from PMC, but it wasn't ready at the time. Well now it has dried, has been fired and polished. So here it is.

This is the little devil that challenged me

 Now when I say I had a lot to say on this I do. You could say it's a bit of a rant but this was a frustrating piece. This piece was not as easy to make as some people say it would have been. Those who say this have about ten or twenty years of working with metal. I for one think they should be a bit more informative when giving lessons, they aren't cheap so I want my moneys worth  damn it!!!! I want as much information as possible you are the experts and for the price I pay for the classes to better my skills I don't want dribbles of information I want as much as possible 

                            Making the bead.

When I first started making the bead I opened the home course took out the DVD and also found that the cork clay I was given was mouldy and wasn't holding the round shape I was trying to make. After about ten minuets arguing with the cork trying to get into shape I managed to get the roundest possible shape that I could get. I mixed up some slip. which is just silver clay with water in a single cream constancy. I painted this around the bead. which helps the silver clay stick to the bead.

 I wrapped it round like the teacher instructed but as I was wrapping the silver clay tore and so I had to take it off the bead. Then put it back into the cling film then into the air tight bag so the clay doesn't dry out. 

What really annoyed me about this was there was no trouble shooting or if something goes wrong so I was sitting at my work table fuming with every curse word know to man escaping from my mouth. I look back now and find it rather funny.

                   My  second attempt at the silver bead    

Now my second attempt at the silver bead was about a month later lorna (my mother in law) she actually watched the DVD with me. She even said it looked quite difficult. So after the DVD we went in to the work shop and I began making the bead, As I say I was now ignoring what I saw on the DVD and was relying on instinct which was working better for me. Having lorna there was also helpful as she is very supportive and brings the best out in people. So I thank her for her patience in just being there and giving me support. Even though she isn't a jeweller she was just so helpful. Maybe I just needed someone to talk to in a tense situation.

                

                  Firing the bead in the kiln 

  After the metal clay had dried and sanded so there are no sharp edges. Which can catch on skin or clothing. Lorna placed it into the kiln she then set the time and heat. When it came out nothing but relief was felt. It was a weight off my shoulders. Seeing it complete was just awesome. I couldn't stop smiling. As I say though if there was a trouble shooting segment to the DVD if something went wrong I wouldn't have been so annoyed. So teachers take note put a trouble shooting section in your DVDs in future thank you

sanded, fired and polished

Thank you for reading my blog on this little bead. 

Although I'm happy with the way it turned out, this was far from a simple procedure. It was very frustrating at times and I felt the tutorial DVD could have been a lot more helpful. Nevertheless I was I able to complete the last part of this project, and now I will be sending it off to be graded.  

      

PMC Clay Diploma Course

                                          PMC Clay

I have just finished a course on PMC (precious metal clay)

The projects  where quite difficult but this did not put me off instead made me want to better my skills. I'll be sending them off to be critiqued. So I have my fingers crossed.

These are the PMC original earrings. I found this clay easy to work with it feels very sturdy. These where fun to make. These took  about four hours to dry and two hour to kiln fire.

PMC original earrings made and fired yesterday

This is the leaf bead that I made, I found this one quite easy to do even if it was fiddly. The leaf impression was made from a leaf skeleton.  This bead was made from PMC 3 clay. This silver clay is my favourite to work with. It's sturdy and doesn't dry out to quickly. 

leaf bead made last month and fired yesterday

 

leaf bead from another angle

This pendant was very challenging to do, not the shape of the pendant but the syringe detail as this was my first attempt at the syringe. But I manage to get the detail I wanted, This one was done with silver art clay. One type of clay I will say I'm not so keen on. I feel that it's weaker than the other silver clays and quite brittle when dry. Although when fired it's as strong as any other metal. It's just not one of my favourites.

Syringe detail pendant

 









This is a cubic zirconia pendant. This one was made with silver art clay as well. The stone setting part of making this pendant was tense.  When I had put the item in to the kiln to be fired I was hoping the stone wouldn't pop out as sometimes this has been known to happen. Thankfully it all went well.

cubic zirconia pendant made last month
and fired yesterday by hand

I have another project I'd like to talk about but I'll wait until it has been fired and polished. I was hoping to post it today but the clay is still drying. It's quite an intricate piece and I have a quite a bit to say on that piece as it gave me the biggest challenge that I've had to face with jewellery making and really tested my metal, pun definitely intended. But I hope you have enjoyed reading this as I have enjoyed making these items and writing about them. If you have any questions just leave a comment below.