New silver clay ring

Here's a new ring-in progress, formed by
carving the silver clay at the dry stage.
After firing in the kiln it was dipped in
Liver of Sulphur solution to darken the lower
areas giving greater contrast to the burnished
upper surface.


















Part way through the carving process I began to make
smaller scored lines and notches in some areas trying
to echo and amplify the lines and irregularities seen in
the surface of the fingers. I like the idea of pieces that
sit well with the characterful fissures of use and age.
This is one interesting aspect of making it up as you go
along, you allow space for new things to come up.
I was also using the irregular slight dips and hills of the
simple clay shape to determine where and how I was
carving into the clay. The deeper carved areas set up
natural weaknesses and tensions in the clay which can
cause cracking when you fire the piece, and this happened
in one place on the inside surface.
but this can easily be righted by refiring with oil paste
in the gap, which forms a very strong bond fusing with the
surrounding metal.


The look here is influenced by work
made using lost wax casting technique, something I
would love to have experience of and access to, but with
silver clay I enjoy that you often find your own ways around
technical difficulties to make a fine silver object without much
equipment, it can all be done in a very small kitchen.



more silver clay jewellery here

metal clay info

Side turn back into metal clay

Enjoying working in silver clay again! (My previous work can be seen here

on flickr).


This piece is based around wrapped fine silver wire.
As silver clay shrinks during firing, the wire armature method is especially useful for rings made to a set size.


It's the kind of piece you can work on by building up layers
of clay slip, and also torch fire in the kitchen, although I always
kiln fire them too at the later stages.


Here's the latest photo of the ring - in - progress:

...and an earlier shot of the ring, before firing:

Latest rings

Fine silver hand made wedding rings; made using silverclay.

This can be worked with like clay and when fired it sinters into

fine (.999) silver.

The top ring has been formed using silver wire as an armature;

I then work silver clay paste in and around this structure and torch fire it.

Then a shorter length of wire is twisted around the top part of the ring;

this is then filled in, shaped and worked over again with more silver clay paste.

The larger ring in the foreground is made using a syringe to pipe clay slip over a dry base.

Multiple firings with a torch and much shaping and refining follows;

("oil paste type" is used over fired silver). The rings are kiln-fired for strength

and then burnished using hand tools; the larger ring is also oxidized

with liver of sulphur solution to bring the contours

of the upper part of the ring into greater relief.

More photos of my jewellery work here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mossmottle/sets/72157612801969864/

More information about metal clay here:

http://www.silverclay.co.uk/?gclid=CL7Hic2QwpQCFQ2L1Qod610wFA

The New Copper Metal Clay

http://www.riogrande.com/default.aspx

UK stockist:

http://www.silverclay.co.uk/shbr.htm

Hadar Jacobson's metal clay powders:

http://store.artinsilver.com/coclpo1.html

flickr copper clay photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=copprclay&w=all