Sculpting Metals
If you haven’t yet heard, the range of precious metal clays available has expanded tremendously over the last handful of years, even into the availability of not so precious metals including copper, bronze, and even steel. What this means is that experimenting with these art clays can be done without the huge investment that the cost of silver necessitated back when that and the insanely priced gold clays were the only options. There are just such tremendous possibilities to expand your designs and the value of your pieces.
Art clays do require some specialized materials but nothing terribly expensive and there are versions of all these metal clays that can be fired with a hand torch so you don’t even need a jewelry kiln. Although who would object to acquiring one if, say, a kindly significant other or family member should want to bestow one on you? If you don’t get into it, they can always be re-sold. I try never to miss out on the opportunity to see if another material might light up my creative passion, although I do prefer it not break the bank in the process.
In any case, you can start by making simple components such as these disks sandwiched with a pretty polymer bead created by Anna Fidecka, who primarily works in metal clays as you’ll see on her Flickr photostream. Once you get how the clay works and are confident of your honed firing skills, you can move onto making your own bezels, bails, backings and beads for your polymer components, creating work that allows you a more complete mode of expression versus buying pre-made metal components. Also, $5 in beautifully wrought copper clay could allow you to increase the price of a pendant by $25 or more over making the same components in polymer and that kind of margin is nothing to sneeze at. There are also durability and detail options you’d have with metal clays not available with polymer.
Ready to give it a try? You can find all sorts of introductory videos online or just pick up your copy of the Spring 2016 issue of The Polymer Arts to find a beautifully detailed tutorial on creating in metal clay by Dawn Stubitsch, with tips and notes you just won’t get in those YouTube videos. It will give you a very clear idea of whether you are ready to dive in as well as showing you just how easy it can be. Then hop on over to our advertising partner Fire Mountain Gems where they will sell you a complete kit for less than $90 with literally everything you need including a torch and the metal clay to get you started. Then you can return to buy and try other metal clay when you find yourself addicted to it!
Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Give metal clays a chance. Or at least read the article or read more about it online. If you’ve already tried metal clays, try a type you have not used before to compare properties and possibilities.
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