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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Little silver sand dollar. Precious metal clay creations.

I have been wanting to work with precious metal clay (PMC) for a while.  It was a matter of time and cost.I finally realized the price of silver like other precious metals does not look like it will be plummeting any time soon.


My first piece was a tiny little heart.  Nothing special but happy and proud to have finally tried this amazing material which when fired turns into .999 pure silver; more pure then sterling making it more expensive plus the hand made aspect of the pieces.


My second piece was this little sand dollar.  Being all thumbs at times this was a long process. Well; for me it was.


My poor little pendant where I made my first bale was the first piece I dropped upside down. The bale once rounded became more flat.  The fall actually made the piece wave a bit and got more of a rustic texture which I liked.


This simple love charm is about the size of dime.  I made it to try out these fabulous old small vintage letterpress letters. It's currently in an unfinished state meaning it hasn't been cleaned or tumbled yet. When it is removed from the kiln it has a whitish coating on it that needs to be scrubbed off.


I always thought these were neat.  Now I had a reason to buy them!


Here it is after cleaning.  It has a brushed finish right now.  Once tumbled it will be shiner and the silver will harden more.


The crown also awaits being tumbled and then put into a solution to make detail dark but it isn't necessary.



This is a piece in the works.  As you can see it is an odd color and needs the edges and surface made smooth before firing.  I wanted to make some sea glass pendants but when the glass was tested in the kiln the colors completely changed!
I set my first stone this week in another piece and look forward to sharing it soon.  Like any new medium my head is spinning with ideas. 

16 comments:

  1. Wow! Those pieces are gorgeous! I haven't heard of precious metal clay - it sounds intriguing!

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  2. Your little sand dollar is adorable.. pretty good for a first try!!

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  3. Wow, this is all so exciting Rita!!!!
    I am loving all of it.
    You are so creative my friend!
    Can't wait to see more.
    XO

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  4. That sand dollar medallion looks just like a dubloon recovered from some ancient treasure. Love it.

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  5. How exciting. They are lovely. but you know me...I especially like the sanddollar.

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  6. A friend of mine has used pieces of sea urchin and coral that I found in florida to make silver jewelry and they turned out nice. I love yours with the sand dollar. It's so cool to be able to do that.

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  7. You are so inspiring and so talented! You have such a unique styling to your beautiful pieces and I can see the love you put into them.
    Can't wait to see all of them! Let us know when they are for sale
    (that is if you will ship to Canada).

    Sandra

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  8. These are so beautiful! I love the little sand dollar! The letterpress letters are a real find!

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  9. More beautiful work
    by creative and lovely
    you! Rita, thank you so
    much for your very kind
    words and support of
    my new Etsy venture. It
    really means so much
    to me! Hope your week
    has been a wonderful
    one, so far : )

    xx Suzanne

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  10. I love what you have done. I have wanted a set of letterpress letters for quite a while. Going to check out your etsy. And a new follower.

    MC

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  11. Hi Rita!

    These look so great. I love anything monogrammed and initial pendants are also so fun. Especially now that I am transitioning to my new married name. How fun to find a new form of your art to explore. Have a great weekend1

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  12. Hi Rita~

    Your work is as beautiful as ever~ So lovely to see such pretty things.

    I hope you're well~

    XO Noel

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  13. Where can we buy your work? Its so beauitful I would love to buy a few!!

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