Silver Clay and the New Kiln!

    I was incredibly lucky to be given a small jewellery kiln for Christmas by the Hubs.  What a wonderful man - and he let me use it in the couple of weeks before Christmas so I didn't have to wait for it - he knows me so well!!

This little pendant is a Christmas gift I made for my sister, using silver clay and the new kiln - it's based on a beachcombing theme, using a cuttlefish bone impression for the 'waves' and silver frit for the sand, I topped it off with a piece of pale amethyst 'treasure'.  It's quite small, about 2.5cm across, as my sister does delicate - if it was for me it would be at least twice that size!!

Also pre-Christmas I made little boxes for my nephews for money and gift cards (which they seem to prefer!), and that's the sum total of my Christmas crafting...

... however, shoulder and elbow seem to be improving and I've felt enthused enough to start a page in my sketch book - I don't know where it's going but hopefully it will have changed by next week!  I'm thinking winter garden - a recurring and well loved theme!

 

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week. 

 

Silver Mandala Pendant

 Still keeping busy during lock down and still keeping to quite a regimented routine.  Giving myself an allotted time slot each day to craft has made me focus my mind on how I'm spending that time and I'm being more productive and doing less 'pottering'!    
Here's a silver clay pendant I've made this week using a lovely mandala style texture plate that I've been itching to use for a while now. 

The wet clay pendant was dried over a light bulb to give it the domed shape before firing.

I'm often asked what silver clay is when I post about it, so I thought I'd give a brief description for anyone interested - it's made of pure silver particles mixed together with clay to act as a binder.  When it's fired the clay binder burns off leaving just the pure silver behind.  It is a little purer than the 935 that you usually see on silver (which indicates 93.5% of pure silver) and can be hallmarked by an assay office as 999 (99.9% pure silver) if anyone has the inclination or money to do so!

Smaller pieces (around 15g of clay or less) don't need to be kiln fired and can be fired at home using a kitchen blow torch.

I'm linking up with Julia over at WOYWW this week. 

I hope you are all staying safe and well.