When I attended the first of the three days I signed up for, I knew my instinct was right - within a few hours of first seeing PMC, one can make jewellery of a good enough standard to want to wear or even be able to sell it. In theory, anyway, I haven't yet tried.
We used silver PMC, which is 99.9% pure silver ground up and mixed with water and a binder, both of which make it plastic and easily formed into pretty much whatever shape you wish. It can be worked very easily while it is soft, in the same way as clay, then when it dries it is possible to file and sand it, drill holes or do other decoration such as using lino cutters. It then needs firing, either with a blow torch (such as a chef's torch, nothing major) or in a kiln - some items need a kiln, others are fine with a blow torch - after all of which the water is gone, the binder is burnt away and only the fine silver is left. It is not quite as strong as sterling silver, but perfectly strong enough for any kind of jewellery, including rings.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of what I made on the three days. I've done a bit of messing about at home as well, but really I want some proper free time to be able to concentrate on designing items and on perfecting techniques - which with materials that are fairly pricey it is best to get right first time.
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| made on the first course, using cubic zirconia which is added to the wet PMC |
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| made on the second course, with the inclusion of dichroic glass - this needs to be fired in a kiln |
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| earrings I made before attending the third course, with the addition of hematite beads the main beads and tiny hearts at the end of the chains were made from PMC, the chains from sterling silver wire |
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| made on the third course, and my favourite piece a leaf pressed into the PMC, cut around to make a small smooth border, with a bail added and refined |
I'm going to have to make an awful lot of swaps I can tell! Adore your work, as you know.
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