Make Fine Silver Jewelry in Hours

Create Your Own Jewelry and Gifts Using Precious Metal Clay

Oct 9, 2008

Innovative products such as Precious Metal Clay (PMC) allow artists and hobbyists to make their own silver jewelry a few hours before they plan on wearing it.

Usually limited to silversmiths and professional jewelers, products such as PMC allow for any individual to use their creativity and make personalized pieces of silver jewelry. Originally created in the 1990s by Mitsubishi Materials of Japan, PMC is created by combining silver particles with an organic binder.

The result is a material that looks and feels very similar to modeling clay; and can be shaped using one's fingers or simple modeling tools such as cutters and patterned rollers. The nature of PMC allows for a range of designs and patterns to be created fairly easily; which would have been laboriously done with traditional silver-working techniques.

How Does One Use PMC?

Once the PMC has been shaped, it will need to air-dry. The total time taken to dry is based on the size and thickness of the piece. During the creative process, the clay can be worked with for a fair amount of time – but will dry out if left in the open for a very long time. It needs to be kept in air-tight packaging when it is not in use; and it should not be stored on anything that will leach the moisture out of it (such as cardboard, paper, or napkins).

Once the piece is completely dry, it is fired using either a butane torch or a kiln (depending on the type of PMC used; if there is a stone set into the piece; and the size of the piece, among other factors) to temperatures that are near that of the melting point of silver. During the firing process, the particles of silver within the clay fuse together and the organic binding burns away.

What remains is the solid piece of silver that retains the shape that was compiled during the creative process, and can be handled in the same manner as any other silver item. The finish of the piece is up to the artist/hobbyist – it can be burnished, tumbled, soldered, plated, or dipped in Liver of Sulfur to oxidize it. The item will be .999 fine silver; and will shrink during the firing process. This will vary between 9% and 30% based on the type of clay used. The high shrinkage of some of types of PMC allows the artist/hobbyist to work on a piece that is larger than the final size, which will ultimately have very fine detail once the shrinkage has occurred.

Types of PMC

There are three types of PMC clay – PMC Standard, PMC+ and PMC3. The PMC3 fires at lower temperatures, which allows for the inclusion of additional materials such as dichroic glass and gemstones into a piece. PMC is available in three additional forms – sheet, syringe, and paste. The sheet PMC can be cut using a shaped punch - as an example, a star cut-out can be placed on top of a pendant; the syringe can be used to create delicate filigree; and the paste can be used to coat organic objects such as leaves (which are fired away with the binder) leaving behind a silver leaf complete with leaf-vein imprints.

Information About PMC

For more information on where to obtain PMC clay or to take a course, visit the PMC Guild web site.

The copyright of the article Make Fine Silver Jewelry in Hours in Crafts is owned by Tami Struwig. Permission to republish Make Fine Silver Jewelry in Hours in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.