New fine silver tribal circle pendant...

New tribal circle design from my Etsy shop.

Ever heard of precious metal clay (PMC)?

PMC is a really unique and fun material that I love to work with, but the trick with this stuff is you have to work fast! It starts to dry very quickly. Basically PMC is made up of silver particles in an organic clay binder.

This is how I create pendants from it:

-Roll out the thickness I want for the pendant (I like mine chunky, about 14 gauge after fired).

-Next imprint or draw a design . I like to use old buttons or make my own molds out of various textures I find everywhere.

-Let piece dry completely, then sand it using graduated sanding pads until it's nice and smooth.

-It's ready for the kiln so fire away! The organic clay binder is fired away leaving 99.9% pure fine silver, but it comes out looking very white and matte.

-Using a vibratory tumbler, tumble the pieces to strengthen the silver and start shining it up.

-I do a "finishing" polish on it with graduated sanding wheels until it's ultra shiny. Sometimes I oxidize (blacken) the details, sometimes not.

Spent the afternoon last weekend creating some new pendants for my shop...so check out my modern silver necklace section for some fun new summer designs.