PMC Metal Clay Tips and Tutorials
Trying to Get Started With PMC Metal Clay?
Precious Metal Clay is a unique material made up of particles of pure silver or gold mixed in an organic binder. It is available in several forms, but the most popular is the lump clay. Once fired you are left with fine silver or gold. If you are just getting started with PMC, this lens is full of tips, tutorials and tricks to help get you started along with where to buy materials and links to lots of projects. A couple of things to start off with--if you are going to invest in a kiln, I re...

The Top 10 Reasons that I Love to Work with PMC
Precious Metal Clay
I am an avid fan of Precious Metal Clay, also called PMC, a non-toxic material made by Mitsubishi Corporation. PMC is made of metal particles bound together in an organic binder which acts mostly like ceramic clay in its green state. Then once it is fired in a kiln, the binder burns away and what is left is either fine silver or gold which can be worked in a traditional metalsmithing manner. I am trained as a metalsmith, but I love working with the claylike functions of PMC, and can get very ...

PMC Metal Clay | Hollow Beads
Making Hollow Beads from Precious Metal Clay
Making hollow beads out of Precious Metal Clay is a good way to keep your pieces lighter weight, and use less PMC per piece. That means that the jewelry you end up with would be less expensive to the end user. It also allows you to make much bigger pieces that won't weigh the customer down when they are wearing your piece. Hollow beads can be made in any shape, round, oval, square, triangular, or anything else you want. They can be plain or fancy, have decorative additions in the surface ...

The Best Tools to Use for Working with Precious Metal Clay
PMC Tools
Are you interested in working with PMC or Precious Metal Clay? Not sure what tools or supplies you need to work with PMC? PMC clay is one of the greatest materials to work with. You can be a beginning artist or hobbyist and end up with finished precious metal jewelry in a relatively short time. One of the best things about PMC is that you don't need a lot of expensive tools or supplies. In fact, most of the PMC tools and PMC supplies are easy to get, and very inexpensive. Many of the PMC ...

PMC Metal Clay | Creating Design Motifs
How to Add Design to Precious Metal Clay
Precious Metal Clay's unique qualities allow artists to create precious metal jewelry in a much faster way using completely different techniques than traditional metalsmithing. The result is highly creative pieces using precious metal alone or in combination with stones, organic materials, other metals, enamels, glass, and polymer clay. New combinations are being discovered all the time, as the formula for PMC develops and changes. One of PMC metal clay's unique features is that desig...

The Best Precious Metal Clay Books
A Good Library of PMC Resource Books to Have on Hand
Are you new to Precious Metal Clay? Or are you already hooked and looking for more information? Either way, I was in your shoes once. I started working with Precious Metal Clay almost 15 years ago, and was immediately hooked. When I started, there was very little information available for people trying to learn how to use Precious Metal Clay. Luckily with a decade of Precious Metal Clay usage behind us, there are some very wonderful resources that you can learn from now. This article is dedic...

Firing Fused Glass into Precious Metal Clay (PMC)
Adding Glass to PMC
When metalsmiths and jewelry artists started working with Precious Metal Clay, one of the biggest requests was for a way to fire fused glass in place while firing PMC. The first and second versions of PMC had to be fired at too high of a temperature. If glass was put in the Precious Metal Clay before firing, it would heat too quickly, and cause the glass to crack. Glass needs to heat and cool very slowly in order to avoid "glass shock" which causes the glass to become unstable and eventually...

How to Make a Simple Pendant from Precious Metal Clay
What is Precious Metal Clay?
Precious Metal Clay is a non-toxic organic material made from very fine particles of fine silver and an organic binder. Together these ingredients form a clay like substance called Precious Metal Clay. Even though it feels like clay, Precious Metal Clay is actually fine silver. This point is important to remember when you are working with PMC, because it is expensive and you need to save any scraps for use later. Precious Metal Clay can be worked like ceramic clay in its green form. Many too...

Making a Ring with Precious Metal Clay (PMC)
Basic Ring Making Techniques
Making a ring with Precious Metal Clay is more complicated than making a flat piece. The main complication is making the PMC ring round instead of flat. There are two techniques to creating a ring with PMC. The first technique is to make a flat band, fire it, then hammer it into a round shape. The second technique is to shape the green PMC around a ring mold, and fire it already round. Both techniques have strengths and problems, so I will go through the explanation of both of the Precious...

Creating a Precious Metal Clay Resource Library
PMC Resource Library
If you are a serious student of Precious Metal Clay, then you should assemble a Precious Metal Clay resource library for your studio. By creating a PMC resource library for yourself, you will have access to the best teachers in the Precious Metal Clay craft arena in your own home, or studio to call on when you run into a problem. A Precious Metal Clay resource library is also a great tool for stretching your boundaries and trying new projects without the expense of taking a class. You do not...