Poor, misunderstood precious metal clay

A couple of summers ago, I took a class in working with precious metal clay. The course was only six weeks long, but I really enjoyed it. There was something very satisfying about digging into that clay and getting my fingers dirty.

Precious metal clay (or PMC at it's known) is a clay that's 99 percent fine silver. When you bake the clay in a kiln, the binders and water are dried out and you're left with a piece of silver. It's a great substance to use for making jewelry.

During my time in that class, I made several pairs of earrings and a few pendants. I made my clay go far. Unfortunately, PMC is REALLY expensive. For about $50, you get a tiny hunk of clay that's the size of a marble. You can stretch the clay -- literally and figuratively -- to be used for a couple of items, but if you want to make anything large, you need a lot of clay. I went through a few packs of clay; so far, it's been my most expensive class at the Y.

I've managed to sell most of my enamel and metal pieces that I've made in class, but I haven't had the same luck with my PMC jewelry. I get a lot of admirers at craft fairs -- "Oh, this is nice! Is it silver?" -- but people seem to balk when I explain that yes, it is silver, but it's silver clay. Maybe people don't like the idea of wearing clay jewelry? I don't know. I'm tempted to just say that my pieces are silver and leave it at that because I'd technically be telling the truth... but then I'd feel guilty about my lie of omission. I always like to share how my pieces were made and what materials were used. It's part of the fun of selling handmade things!

I haven't taken another PMC class because it just costs too much money to do something for fun. I'm all for making jewelry simply for the love of designing, but we also have to pay our rent. But maybe this will be the year that my PMC pieces get some love....

To purchase my jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs or MayaGirl Creations.

More precious metal clay fine silver earrings

I finally got around to finishing the precious metal clay earrings that I'd made in my pmc class. Working with pmc is fun, but it requires a lot of filing and fine tuning to get the rough edges out of the finished product. But here are my three new pairs of pmc earrings:

When making the leaf earrings, I tried to make the leaves look as realistic as possible. Many people will cover actual leaves with a pmc slurry; the leaf then burns away when fired, leaving a leaf cast. However, I made these freehand and carved out the little veins myself.

The square earrings have a fun geometric pattern in them. That was me just playing around with shapes and textures, but I think they look a bit tribal.

I also textured the triangle earrings with what looks like a pattern of scales. Looking at them on this page, the earrings really look like little fins or dragon tails!

To purchase my jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs. To purchase my children's jewelry, head to MayaGirl Creations.

Funky fine silver earrings made of pmc

I had so much fun in my precious metal clay class! Working with this material is just so relaxing and you can do so much with it. The class was tiny (only four people), but our teacher was great and the other students were interesting.

I managed to make so many pieces during the six week semester and was admittedly very business-minded. I wasn't too experimental; I made many pendants and earrings, things that people would actually wear and that I could sell. The other students, however, made some crazy stuff! One woman made a small pmc basket and then filled it with little baby figurines (which she attached using resin). And just because it wasn't creepy enough, she filled their eyes with cubic zirconias. Meanwhile, the guy in our class had this plan to make a piece with doll eyes (what is it with creepy doll parts?), but ended up making pmc thistles and peanuts. He did so by covering the items with thick coats of pmc slurry; then when you bake them, the items burn out and the precious metal clay cast of the item is left over. Neat!

I felt a little boring making my pretty earrings, but I just wasn't up for making pmc clown heads or something. I wanted something a bit more ... mainstream. Still, I did joke about my items. They had to be dried before they could be put in the kiln so we'd stick our pieces in a toaster for a few minutes. So I'd say things like, "Time to bake the butterflies," or "Time to cook the cat heads." I think we all had a macabre sense of humor!

Here are some of the fine silver earrings I made in this class, all of which I listed at MayaGirl Creations:

I definitely plan to take another pmc class come October when the Y resumes classes. I don't understand why it isn't more popular, but hey, more equipment for me!

To purchase my children's jewelry, head to MayaGirl Creations. To purchase my grownup jewelry, head to Naomi's Designs.