Design Your Own Silver Pendant? But how?

February 15, 2017

Design Your Own Silver Pendant?  But how?

Yes, it true. You can design your own silver pendant at Heart & Stone using a relatively new raw material called Silver Metal Clay. You can read how it all works in a previous blog post I wrote called Creativity is Contagious but the short version is this:

They took powdered metal and added a binder & water. The metal now has a consistency of clay. Let your imagination run wild for a minute about what you can do with clay that you could not do with a piece of hard metal....You can roll it, texture it, easily cut it, paste pieces together, coil it and the list goes on. You dry it to remove the water and fire it in a kiln to remove the binder and sinter the metal. 

This image shows freshly textured metal clay. 

In our DYO All ages classes you'll have a chance to design your own pendant that we'll help you to create in silver clay. By all ages we mean most ages. I would say 10 to adult. Younger is totally fine too with a participating adult. 

We'll cover what metal clay is and how it goes from a lump to a finished piece of silver jewelry. You'll get your design challenge and get to work. There are loads of materials & tools to work with: templates to cut out shapes, textures and stamps so don't worry if you're "not creative." I hear that all the time! "But I'm not creative...'' and to that I say...Not to worry if you can make a few decisions about things you like (and maybe what you don't like) then you're all set. If you are creative, then look out, the sky's the limit. 

In this particular class the instructor does most of the handling of the wet clay. Each student will work with the instructor to create their pieces in the wet clay. From there the students will cut, sand, paste and drill their pieces to get them ready for the kiln. At the end of class the pieces are left for firing & finishing and can be picked up in a few days to a week. 

We usually run this class over vacation weeks so check out the metal clay calendar for upcoming dates. Sign up to reserve your spots. We also offer full day beginner and advanced metal clay jewelry making classes most saturdays if you'd like to take the next step to really get your hands on the clay and see what it, and you, can do. Or grab your girlfriends and book a Ladies Night Out. 

Also in H&S Design Blog