And now for something completely different…

Modern technology is amazing.  I’ve been playing with metal clays recently – silver, copper, and bronze suspended in a soft workable material.  It can be formed in any way that clay can and after it dried it is fired in the kiln to burn off the clay and fuse the metal.  The result is a solid metal piece that is far more intricate than anything I could make without learning how to do lost wax casting.

This is one of my first silver clay pendants:

This pendant features a purple cubic zirconia as a focal point.  Since zirconia is lab-formed at very high temperatures, it can withstand the 1200-1500 degrees Fahrenheit heat that metal clays require for firing.  Semi-precious and precious stones would shatter at those temperatures.

I learned how to make this pendant from the lovely book Metal Clay for Beaders by Irina Miech.