Since I remember, I was always in love with silver. I have a small collection of silver rings and earrings, the more unique, the better. I never thought that someday I would be able to make silver jewellery. Yet here I am creating :).
So how did it started? Well, a few months ago, I came across add on Facebook inviting to take on the ‘challenge’ of making silver clay pendant. It was a free, 1-week course, teaching how to make a silver pendant in the comfort of my own home.
Lessons were the courtesy of a lovely lady, Emma, who has her own online silver clay school. I think it is a great idea to have a small taste of something before investing money in tools and signing up for school or courses.
So what exactly do you need to start? The list of tools you need to make a simple project will vary, depending on what you want to do, but many things you most likely will have at home already.
So let’s start with the most important things:
* silver clay
* small kitchen blow torch
* rolling pin (plastic or acrylic)
* sanding paper (it is possible to use nail file too)
* little drill
* textures to make patterns
* jump rings and chain of your choice
* polishing papers for silver
The pendant in the course was different from what I wanted to make. I decided to make earrings and pendant set. The smallest available pack of silver clay is 5 grams. At first, I thought it wouldn’t be enough to make what I had in mind. Well, I’ve been positively surprised.
First, I split clay into three even parts and ‘trimmed’ leaves a little bit, to make it easier to work with when imprinting vein pattern. It is not necessary, though. I could have done it with knife-edge or toothpick or even needle. Possibilities are endless.
Next, I rolled and shaped clay. One thing I’ve learned in the process is that clay dries out rather quickly, but it can be rehydrated with a little bit of water. Once I was happy with how it looks, I left it to dry. Then I’ve realised that I made a mistake. I left leaf stalks with the intention of shaping it later into a loop for a chain. Dry clay supposes to be still slightly flexible, but I don’t think it would work on such a small piece.
Took me some time and bit of fiddling around, but with the help of brush and water to rehydrate clay, I managed to make some loops. Considering it’s been my first-time experience with clay, I was happy with the results.
I think the most exciting part of the whole process was to finally turn my creations into pure silver. Fire away!
At first, I was in some doubts if it worked, as after firing all the pieces still looked like clay. I expected it to turn into shiny silver. What I didn’t realise I had to clean it first. Ooops đŸ™‚
That’s how finished, and polished pieces look like at the end. I’ve used some polishing papers specially made for silver clay. They look like small cloths with a very fine grit, and they make silver very shiny. My precious! đŸ˜‰
Result. Beautiful, unique and one-off.
Sadly, at the time of writing it, I’ve lost my leaf pendant. Some day I will try and make another one to match my earrings.
