PMC Class

So besides taking a stained glass class this Winter, I also took a Precious Metal Clay (PMC) class at the Art Center. PMC is a medium I have been wanting to try for quite some time. It was very interesting and informative. We first worked with silver PMC3, which is the formula that does not require a kiln to fire it. It can be fired with a butane torch. I was happy about this because I have a butane torch, so if I ever wanted to try my hand at it again I would only need to find a tumbler if I wanted to achieve that super shiny finish. Below is the quarter size pendant I ended up with. It is hard to take photos of something that is so shiny and still get the detail. Even though our teacher had a brand new package of clay from a reputable supplier, this particular batch was a bit dry. It is tricky to work with and you can only "work" it or rehydrate it so many times before it is too late. This bird impression was from a rubber stamp. Although cute, it was not the first impression I choose but because the clay was getting so hard the original stamp I picked was not working. You can also see teeny tiny hairline markings on the surface - this was form the clay getting too dry. They are so small that you might not be able to see them (to correct them) before the piece is fired.

It was really cool to be able to fire it yourself and see the transformation. After it was fired, you had to take a wire brush to it to remove any residue, then burnish it, then pop it in the tumbler. I know you can also apply patinas to it, so I'll have to experiment with that.
For our next project, we were going to work with bronze clay. I felt that this was a bit easier to work with then the silver clay, however it does need a kiln to be fired. We were going to make a hollow bead by creating the 4 sides and then putting them together. I choose to do the pillow shape, one of the two shapes our teacher demonstrated. For my texture, I brought in this plastic peacock I got at the zoo. Ohhh, it looked so cool! But, unfortunately, something went awry in the kiln and all of our pieces did not turn out. Bummer!

Since our teacher had taken the hollow beads home to fire in her kiln, she felt just terrible that they didn't turn out. So she make us all similar pendants out of the bronze clay. She had a peacock feather stamp that she used for me.

Our last project was to make a mold for the bronze clay. We used a 2 part mold material, that you quickly mixed together with your hands and then pressed your object into. I did a little twig. It is not been fired yet, so this is what the bronze clay looks like once it has dried.

So, I know I didn't go into a lot of detail with the process, steps to make a piece, etc... I just basically wanted to share a summary. But I did learn a lot in the class and am glad that I finally got to try working with PMC.