Curious about metal clay?  Want to know what is involved?  Then check out this simple but pretty metal clay earrings tutorial by Karen Trexler for Cool Tools. Fine silver metal clay is actually the easiest to work with and you get high quality pieces in the end. Bronze and copper metal clay are both trickier to fire.

The main construction step of rolling out the clay and imprinting a texture will be familiar to any one who has worked with polymer clay. The instructor embeds the wire lengths at this stage.


The metal clay is then air dried or you can use a dehydrator.  This is the "greenware" stage where you can easily sand off irregularities. She also bends the ear wires before putting the earrings into a kiln for a 2 hour fire.  Small pieces like this can also be fired with a torch.  The firing process causes the metal to sinter (coalesce and compress) and the binder in the clay to burn off leaving just fine silver behind. 

She adds patina to the fired pieces before tumbling for the final shine.

Do check for local classes with a certified instructor if you are interested in learning more about metal clay.  I had fun at a class not too long ago - see second link below.



Before You Go:



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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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