Copper clay pieces after firing, brass brushed. The round pieces are hollow forms, not solid.
PMC3 smeared into recessed areas. 2 pieces are sanded down to show the copper surface.
Finished earrings. PMC3 has been torch fired. Some shrinkage. Have not yet tried filling the cracks and refiring. Maybe I don’t mind the slight openings between some of the silver and copper. It would be good to know what happens if I were to fill in and refire….
Soldering sterling silver posts on copper clay. Hmmmm…. The one on the left worked well the first time. The one on the right took three tries and a lot of solder. Soldering on copper clay feels very similar to soldering on PMC original. The fired clay is still quite porous. I tried burnishing the area where I was going to put the post. Still tricky soldering. Has anyone else had trouble with this?
The hole that is distant from the post is a vent hole in the hollow form. The hole right next to the post is where the copper started to pit when I tried to solder.
good morning!
gosh, those look great! you have been VERY busy! i also love the way the copper looks brass-brushed in that top pic….
hey how many cards thick are the back and sides of those circles you made into earrings? and i heard you didn’t need to vent small hollow forms …did you have a core that needed to burn out?
xo
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Hi Holly,
I vented the earrings because I didn’t know what would happen when I tried to torch fire the silver PMC. I figured it was safer to vent them.
The sides are 4 cards thick. I wrapped a dowel with a rectangle of clay and scored the rings so I could cut them when they dried. Then I placed the dowel and lay directly o the cup warmer. I turned it frequently so it would dry evenly. It did not shrink and the pieces barely shrunk when I fired them. This stuff is so different from silver PMC. The tops are 6 cards thick.
Will you get that clay out before summer?! Do it!
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oh, i’ll try to get into it before summer!
i have 2 pendants and a necklace of 5 little lentils that all have to be strung before i do anything else….i really do not enjoy beading, so i have to get it over with quick, like medicine!
4 and 6 cards….are the circles kind of heavy?
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The circles aren’t heavy, since the 6 cards gets squished down to a thinner version when I stamp it. On the back I think I used three cards. Also I’m leaving room for plenty of sanding/finishing before firing, so the finished thicknesses might be more like 2 cards for the sides and 4 cards at the thickest part of the top.
From your beautiful work, one would never know that you do not enjoy beading!
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