Tip for using dry copper clay powder to make sterling silver metal clay...

With so much buzz about the article by the staff at the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery and their experiments to create Sterling Silver Metal Clay--we knew the metal clay world would be excited!

Hadar Jacobson, as many of you know, has her own line of metal clays, and she was eager to try the experiments done by the MCSJ and to add to the information available to metal clay artists. Hadar shows that she was able to use the recipe created by Lisa Cain and her team--with Hadar's ClayTM Quick Fire Copper with PMC to make sterling silver metal clay.  The part that intrigued us at MCAM is the great tip Hadar gave to ensure that your mixes are equal if using a dry clay and a wet clay. 

The following is an excerpt from Hadar's blog.  Thanks for letting us share your information. ~MCAM

"Congratulations to UK metal clay artists on making silver clay that can be Hallmarked 925 silver! I was glad to hear about this via email while teaching in Ohio, and couldn’t wait to read the article in Metal Clay Artist Magazine. I was surprised to read, though, that the testers had no success with my clay. So, for my customers in the UK, I tried. I made it with PMC+, since that’s what I had at the moment." 

"So why didn’t it work in the UK? My only guess is that the testers may have used my Traditional Copper powder, not the Quick-fire version. 

I also have a suggestion for more accurate measuring. When the two clays are mixed with water, there is no way to compare the amount of water in them. For example, one of the clays may be dryer than the other, and will weigh less than it would have if it were as moist as the other clay. Dry the silver clay that you are about to use, until it contains no water at all. With a dedicated coffee grinder, grind it to a powder. Then weigh the powdered silver and the Quick-fire Copper powder and mix them together. Then add water to the mix.

In any case, I am very happy for you over there on the other side of the pond! Hope to meet you again sometime!"

~Hadar Jacobson

Full blog post can be found at: http://artinsilver.com/blog/

The real cover!

On March 6th, I wrote a blog post about our cover artist, which was tricky to do given that our cover had a top secret exclusive article.  So we deleted the headline and posted the cover without it so that I could talk about Joy Funnell's beautiful fine silver mask that is our highlighted art piece.

Here is the cover we posted on March 6th

And here is the cover that you will see on our next issue!!

So now you know our big secret--STERLING SILVER METAL CLAY! I can't tell you how excited we are at Metal Clay Artist Magazine to be a part of this chapter in jewellery making history. (And not to mention how hard it was to keep the secret!)  The article will feature the recipes that Lisa Cain and the teachers at the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery made, tested and hallmarked!l The recipes to make Sterling Silver metal clay using PMC or Art Clay, comments and samples from the testers will be in our next issue, due out in April.

Thank you Lisa for being so generous with this information!!

Our website: www.metalclayartistmag.com has a few more details about what is coming.    

As well here is our press release:

Friday, March 18, 2011

Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery Director Creates Hallmark-Quality Sterling Silver Metal Clay

Details to be revealed in the upcoming issue of Metal Clay Artist Magazine.

Lisa Cain, Director of the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery (MCSJ) in England, announced today that she and her staff have developed methods, recipes and firing schedules for com­bining existing commercial silver and copper clay formulas into hallmark-quality sterling silver clay. A fired sample of the clay was first hallmarked by the London Assay Office on January 25, 2011. The step-by-step method, recipes and firing schedule will be published in the Spring 2011 issue (Vol. 2, Issue #2) of Metal Clay Artist Magazine, which will launch in early April. 

Staff at MCSJ developed two successful recipes, one using Art Clay™ brand metal clays and another using PMC® clays. Well-known UK artists Julia Rai (also a staff instructor at MCSJ), Lesley Messam and Chris Pate tested and refined the process to ensure that it could be reproduced easily and reliably in a home studio. Detailed reports from all three testers will be included in the nine-page article in the upcoming issue of Metal Clay Artist Magazine devoted to this breakthrough metal clay discovery.

Ms. Cain explains, “My motivation for developing this new option was the very real need for this type of clay, especially here in the UK where hallmarking laws influence the materials we artists can use credibly in our commercial work. Sterling silver clay of hallmark quality is a crucial next step in the evolution of metal clay.”

Once Ms. Cain had proven that sterling silver clay was achievable and practical, she shared her discovery with a small number of colleagues and close friends, some of whom encouraged her to manufacture the sterling silver clay or try to benefit financially from the recipes in some way. “I have no interest in doing either. My focus is set firmly on innovation, artistry in metal clay, teaching and running the Mid Cornwall School of Jewellery. I share it willingly with the metal clay community.” 

Ms. Cain chose to reveal her method, recipes, firing schedules and detailed test results in Metal Clay Artist Magazine because “they were willing and excited to allocate the effort and space needed to really do justice to the story and give the metal clay community all the detailed information I wanted to share.” Metal Clay Artist Magazine is available for purchase at more than 12,000 locations worldwide. To purchase a copy of the Vol. 2, Issue #2, which contains the article on Lisa Cain’s sterling silver metal clay, visit www.metalclayartistmag.com. This issue will be available in April.

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Jeannette Froese LeBlanc

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief