Silver Saturday

After a somewhat stressful week I had the urge to crack open the silver clay starter set I had been given (4) years ago.

Inside I found

well plus a few other bits like instructions and such. There is a burnishing tool, double sided file, the cutters and mould are mine anyway. The metal mesh is for gas hob firing the clay, metal brush for finishing the piece etc.

One of my lore stone moulds, incidentally its quite large would have needed at least 20g of silver clay to fill it!

a ginko leaf texture plate that I purchased, I think this one is from sculpey studio range.

I got all excited and forgot to photograph the bit inbetween but esentially I rolled out one piece and textured it with the leaf and then cut it into shape and made the hole. The other I rolled up all the scraps into a ball and pressed into my mould and then reshaped into the rough triangle and made the other hole.

I dried the pieces in my clay oven and then used a file and microfibre sanding pads to refine the shapes. It occured to me the edges were a tad pointy and once transformed into fine silver may be a bit jabby!

I was then baffled by my kiln instructions and then realised that had been my excuse for the last four years. Yes I have had a lovely kiln for four years and not used it, much to my shame :(

There the little fella. Its dead groovy with a bead anealing door for when I eventually start lampworking :)

After firing there is a fine white residue left on the silver clay from where the binder burns off. The metal brush in the kit is very handy for getting rid of it.

Hopefully in this pic you can see the difference from where the silver is starting to emerge after the vigorous brushing.

This is the oxidising solution which you mix up with warm water and a chemical from the kit. It is supposed to be a translucent ochre colour, so evidently I mixed it too strong by accident! It smells like rotten eggs so I am guessing its a sulpher solution.

The pieces are supposed to take about a minute to oxidise but mine were ready in seconds...perhaps I did mix it super strength!

After being oxidised the pieces are washed in clean water :)

Then buffed and scrubbed with silver polish and a fibre cloth to take the oxidisation off the upper surfaces. This highlights the texture :) and makes the shiny bits uber shiny

Voila :) I am really liking the leaf texture and the 'aged' look of the other piece from all the cracks.

 and

 :)

Added to a sterling silver snake chain (the jump ring is too big and will be swapped) and the flash was too strong so you cannot see the patina sigh lol!

  and the other piece!

I am pretty happy bunny with these bits and pieces. I of course have mounains of ideas and want to try enameling the finished pieces and adding fused glass and all sorts of fun stuff.

thanks for reading and will post again soon

H
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