A Square Peg in a Round Hole

I have been working on a bespoke piece based around the idea of a 'square peg in a round hole', for an 18th birthday in Jan.

The birthstone for Jan is Garnet, so I have used a 5mm square cut garnet as the focal point of the piece, with 24ct Keum-boo gold added as a highlight.

The first picture below is the piece at 'green stage', this means the silver art clay has dried but can still be worked as if a ceramic article rather than as a hard metal piece.


I have now fired the piece ready for the addition of the 24ct Keum-Boo highlight.
Keum-boo is not gold leaf, it is a much thicker gold foil which can be cut, torn, cutter punched etc, and applied to the silver using heat.
I wil attach the gold to the silver using a butane torch and an Agate Burnishing tool to give a smooth finish and a strong bond with the silver, but others may use different tools for the same effect.


Here is the finished piece...for a square peg in a round hole. With love and my best wishes


Notes: This piece was for an 18 year old young woman, with an eye for stylish high fashion and unique creative art.
Since a child she has always felt different to her peers with her take on life and a razor sharp creative spark.

I wanted to create a unique piece of wearable jewellery to be enjoyed for many years. Something that would symbolise the wearer, without shouting out its meaning.
The traditional key or 18 hanging around her neck would simply not have 'cut the mustard' so to speak, I hope this does...

Namaste
Helen 'Lizze' James x

Twitter: LizzieJArt

Keum-Boo explained by Wikipeadia

From Dull Clay to Sparking Silver

I thought I would blog the process of how silver clay ends up up as a wearable piece of silver jewellery. What I am going to illustrate is the part of working with silver clay that I find the most fascinating and exciting. Turning something that starts off so brittle and delicate and ends up as a shiny solid pendant.


The picture above is a disk about 1" in diameter in what is known as its 'green state'. This is where the silver clay has been left to dry and is ready for firing. It has a dusty grey look and feels rather delicate to handle. At this stage it can be filed, sanded, drilled, carved, and pretty much anything you can do with regular clay.
Before this stage while the clay was moist, I stamped it and made holes in which I set 3x small Ruby's, 1 x Garnet and 1 x Peridot ready to be fired into the piece.
Its not perfect I know, but this was my first attempt so things can only get better with time.

After firing with a torch the piece takes on its metallic feel with a dull white surface that looks and feels dusty. This is not a dust, it is silver particles not laying in a uniform pattern to reflect the light so it looks dull.

The picture below shows the difference it makes to the areas that have been burnished to lay the silver particles flat with the back of a stainless steel spoon. An agate burnishing tool is most useful at this stage but mine was at the bottom of the tools box when I was at this stage so needs must and I grabbed a spoon to use instead. It has a long way to go yet so I have time to dig out the burnishing tools for additional shine.
The area with the bright shine around the edge of the disk shows where I have just rubbed the back of the spoon across the surface to burnish it.



This next picture shows the back of the disk, and you can see the indentations from the Teflon sheet I used to roll the clay out onto. You can also see the holes I made for the gem stones, and the bail made from a piece of fine silver attached with clay paste onto the pendant.



Finally you can see that now the shine is beginning to appear and the disk is looking more like a piece of silver jewellery almost ready to be worn.



I fired it once more to raise the rough surface again in order to apply an area of 22Kt Gold Keum-Boo then burnished again to set the gold in place.
It is nearly ready to wear now, I just need to give it a polish with a good cloth to further smooth off any scratches and it will be ready to enjoy.


I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, and I hope it inspires you to give silver art clay a go for yourself.

Follow my thoughts and ramblings on Twitter @Lizziejart

Getting to grips with Silver Clay

I have always enjoyed ceramics but have always disappointed that the pieces I made would be so fragile it was hard to keep them safe from little hands.
Having recently discovered the pleasures of crafting handmade silver jewellery, it came as a joy and inspiration to learn about the wonders of silver clay also known as precious metal clay or PMC. For me this was like the ultimate combination of my favorite things. I get to work initially as if with ceramic, then following firing the techniques change to some silver smithing techniques I have been attempting to get the hang of.

I cant tell you how addictive working with silver clay is, the possibilities are vast. As a relatively new product to the market many traditional jewellers remain rather wary of using PMC. However, it is gaining in popularity with artisans and home crafters, especially as it is such a pleasant non toxic product to craft with.

What is Silver Clay?

First developed in Japan Art Clay Silver is made of finely powdered pure silver, water, and binders. When heated to 800-850 degrees C., the organic binders burn off, leaving a pure silver piece.


Precious Metal Clay, PMC, is an exciting material developed and patented in the 1990s by Mitsubishi Materials of Japan. Microscopic particles of silver are mixed with a moist binder to create a material that has the feel and working properties of modeling clay.
Using simple tools, objects are easily given shape, texture, and character. After air-drying, the objects are heated to temperatures approaching the melting point of the metal. The binders burn off safely leaving the fine silver particles to fuse together to make a dense, fully metallic object.
Once fired the piece can be polished, soldered, enameled, and enjoyed like any other silver item. It may then also be stamped .999 or hallmarked traditionally as fine silver.

As I explained earlier I have only been using Silver Clay for a month or so, but as I am sure you too will find out it really is a joy to work with, and I can see this becoming a long term interest as I learn more about it and explore its possibilities in the coming months and years.