I’m quite new to silverclay so this is a learning, and teaching experience for me.
Silverclay is an amazing material and I still find it hard to believe something resembling bluetac can turn into silver, it really is alchemy!!
I rolled the clay out, pressed a fern frond into it and cut the shape I wanted.
The pieces were dried thoroughly with a hair dryer and the edges sanded with an emery board .
The pieces were dried again (I think it’s best to let them dry overnight).They were now ready for firing. I used a blow torch as I was in a hurry, but I prefer kiln firing.
Once stintered the silver looks white, brushing with a brass brush brings up the silver look. Then I polished with tripoli and jewellers rouge to a high shine.
I decided to patinate the fern to give it more definition.
I thought it would be interesting to try adding enamels to the fern pattern, but as I don’t have any here with me I decided to try green china paint. It worked but not well enough so I’ll try again with some enamels.
This piece has an impression made from plastic sheets sold especially for silver clay. I think I’d like to enamel this one.
Jill
