About My First Metal Clay Class

Here's my first encounter with silver metal clay class. Things I learned in my metal clay hobby class.

I'm revisiting my first piece of silver clay. It kind of reminds me how far I have come and how much I have learned since my first class. It is not that perfect because I learned it later that I should have had thought of design in advance. I also added patina much later when learned about it in my following class. #texturenglint #design #workshop

My first metal clay design ever!

I’d love to share what I learned in my first PMC class. I started with PMC silver clay. Metal clay is combination of very fine metal dust, binder and water. There are three major steps to follow.

Design in wet clay

When I took out clay it was a bit sticky. Once you take out clay keep only portion of clay required for your design because clay starts drying too soon.

Now, keeping the metal clay wet while working is important. You’ll only need water to keep it wet. Just dip your fingers in water and apply on clay. But, do it only if you feel that clay is drying or you feel cracks in the clay.

As drying is quite rapid, we have to plan the design steps in advance. Otherwise making can be little complicated and frustrating. (if design is intricate containing fine details)

Drying the design and finishing

After finishing the design with wet clay, we need to dry the piece completely. If clay is little bit wet; results after firing may not turn out as what you expected.

For drying the piece you can keep it to dry for a day and then fire it. If I talk about Singapore where weather is quite humid it is better to dry your piece with dryer instead of leaving it to air dry. If using dryer it will take 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the piece.

Firing the piece and polishing & add patina (if desired)

Now, you can fire your piece with hand held gas torch, on house hold gas stove or in a kiln. When you are starting you can depend on first two appliances. Any which way, knowledge of right temperature for the clay you are using is must.

When you fire the piece, the binder inside the clay burns away and metal particles come closer so the piece shrinks a bit (8% to 30%, depending on the design). So, while designing the piece you have to consider the shrinkage. Piece after firing is little smaller in size.

After firing you can polish your piece and apply patina on it.

That’s it for now. I’ll come up with new posts soon regarding metal clay.