Sterling Metal Clay Experiments – Julia Rai

Clay A Experiments

I decided to make something pretty freeform with lots of tapered elements and thin tendrils.

The clay was very dry straight from the pack so I flattened it and added water to the surface, then kneaded this in. I had to add more water than I normally would to silver metal clay before it became moist enough to roll into balls without showing surface cracks.

I made several small elements by rolling them into tapered shapes and then bending these using a wet paintbrush. The clay is easy to manipulate into curved forms and dries quite quickly. The surface was also very easy to refine using a wet paintbrush and I did very little filing.

I felt it handled very well and I really enjoyed the experience of working with it at the wet stage. I joined the forms together in a variety of ways. Some of them I joined with a little thick paste made from small lumps of the clay, others with just water. Both methods worked well.

I had some open elements at the end of the tendrils so I made very thin, quite sharp tendrils to protrude from these, simply by rolling thin tapered snakes and curving them with a wet paintbrush. Once dry, these were attached into the open ends with a little paste and water. I textured some of the elements with paste and a cocktail stick and left others plain. This texturing worked the same way as with normal silver clay.

The very thin elements were prone to snapping so needed careful handling. Once the whole thing was dry, I fired it on an open shelf with vermiculite for 30 minutes at 538 degrees C, and then put this into carbon for the final firing at 821 degrees C for one hour. I used a stainless steel firing pan and put 2cms of coconut carbon on the bottom, placed the piece on top and covered with around 2cms of carbon. It was fired with the lid on. This meant my box was less than half full so left lots of air space above the surface.

The piece fired perfectly. I removed it from the carbon with tongs when the firing pan was cool enough to remove from the kiln with gloves but still hot. I then quenched it in water. I brass brushed it and it stood up to this with no problems. I then tumbled it for an hour. Then I used a small steel brush on it. It appears to be very strong and none of the very thin elements can be bent with finger pressure. One tiny tendril came away from the element it was stuck to. This was more a factor of the joining rather than the strength of the clay. The other elements are firmly fixed.

Clay B Experiments

I’d had the clay wrapped up for 10 days before I opened it so I wasn’t expecting much. It had separated slightly, was cracked and felt dry but with kneading and pinching, it became soft and pliable and I didn’t need to add more water which was a surprise. Strong copper smell.

I decided to make a flat rolled out, textured piece, tapered tendril piece and a piece with three joined tapered tendrils. The clay was very nice to handle once it had softened. It took my stingray texture very well and draped like fabric. I didn’t cut the flat piece, just pulled it into the draped form and allowed to dry. Nothing was needed to hold it up, it held the form on its own. The tendrils responded well to water and could be easily manipulated into spirals. The surface smoothed out well with a wet paintbrush.

The flat piece felt solid even though it was very thin. The tendril pieces responded well to a wet paintbrush and wet finger smoothing. Filed some grooves into the bud forms, handles well and doesn’t feel fragile. The three tendril piece was joined together with water only, no paste. It stuck together with no problems. Paste was easy to make and the single tendril piece was textured with this.

I used a Paragon SC2 kiln for both experiments. First phase of the firing was on vermiculite, the second phase in carbon 2 cm deep under the pieces, the same on top. Lid on. Removed from the hot carbon with tongs and quenched. All the pieces are fully sintered and only one tiny bubble is visible on the back of the flat piece. Some shrinkage, I’d estimate around 15%.

Vigorously brass brushed all the pieces and they are very strong. The back of the flat piece is smooth except for one tiny bubble. The pointed ends of the tendrils are strong and had no problem standing up to vigorous brushing in all directions.

The flat piece is 0.5mm thick at the edges and is unbendable by hand. The edges can be bent using pliers and the metal tears with extreme bending. Tendril ends cannot be bent by hand. The pieces feel very robust.

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