Silver Clay Jewellery Course, A Long Time Of Learning.

If you have ever read my older blog on this silver course. You will know I had a bit of trouble trying to get to grips with some of the techniques. One would be making the silver bead. Trying to make the bead was hard work. It frustrated me to no end. The course is eighteen months long, so I had time to perfect the design of the silver and just relax, because no one learns these kind of techniques over night. If that were the case I'd have passed by now! 

Detailed Silver Pendant

It's amazing how a white bit of clay can be moulded in to something like this. PMC or silver art clay is made up of small silver particles in an organic binder. When the piece of PMC silver is fired the binder burns off and you are left with the silver. 

This pendant was made from silver art clay. A silver clay that I didn't like when I first used it but now I do like. As you can see

this is just a simple pendant design. I rolled out the silver and just cut this simple shape out (free handedly). I transferred a pattern on to the silver. I also used badger balm to stop the motif from sticking to the clay. After the clay had dried completely I then added the vine like detail with an art clay syringe. Syringe detailing can be difficult but with patience and steady hand, or as steady as possible it can be done beautifully. When I completed this pendant I sent it off to get fired and polished. I really enjoyed making this pendant :)  

Silver PMC Bead

Ah yes! The silver bead of doom! Not really, I had three failed attempts at making this bead. Ah but on the fourth attempt however I got the round shape that is needed for the course.  In my older

Older bead as you can see it's uneven
and not round in the least.
(still pretty though)

blog I used cork clay to make the base for the silver to be wrapped around. The cork clay I just couldn't work with as it was mouldy and wouldn't keep a round shape, but wood clay I can work with. Wood can be sanded cork can't! I shaped the wood clay in to a round ball and waited for it to dry. I rolled out the silver clay so it was about three cards thick. Then covered the wood bead with the silver clay. A lot of blending and sanding later I got the perfect round shape. With some of the clay that was left I made some donut ends for the bead. I was looking

A closer look at the new bead
(sorry for the picture quality my
camera at the moment can really pick
up the silver or it's detail very well) 

at the bead and it looked rather plain. So I added some leafs and vines to add some ooomf to the bead. 

Even though I complained about this bead in one of my blogs and how difficult it was, it can be done. I used my frustration and

New silver bead as you can see
it is much rounder.

annoyance to fuel me. I pushed myself because sitting on your backside complaining doesn't help you succeed in what you are doing. Even if that is making a tiny bead! It's still an accomplishment even if it does seem like a small one :)

As you can see I have put up the new silver bead and the older bead for comparison. You can clearly see how uneven and distorted the shape is. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this, I had fun sharing with you.

Keep It Spooky!