Enamel and Precious Metal Clay

Precious Metal Clay Jewelry
PMC allows the artist to form shapes that would be difficult and time-consuming using traditional silversmithing techniques. It's easy to work with because the organic binder has the consistency of modeling clay and holds the metal particles together. Once fired, you're left with a piece of fine silver or gold.

Original PMC comes only in clay form. PMC+ comes in clay, paste, syringe, and sheet forms. PMC3 comes in clay, paste, and syringe forms. You can shape all of these forms by using your fingers or simple tools. This has opened up a whole new world of artistic expression.


Enamel and PMC Pendant and Ring

Enameling
Enameling is the art of fusing powdered glass to metal under high heat conditions. Thus anything that can be made out of metal can be enameled. In addition to being beautiful, it can also be one of the most intimidating and frustrating techniques to learn.

Gold, silver, and copper provide the best metal bases, and different firing temperatures and times change the enamel's appearance from reflective to glossy to gritty. Many different enamels are available with different colors and qualities. Oxides within finely ground silicon produce the color of the enamel, and the concentration of oxides creates opaque or translucent qualities.

This is a very colorful piece by Jeanette Landenwitch:


Heart of the Woman Pendant

Enamel on PMC
Because Precious Metal Clay fires to 99.9% pure silver, it is especially well suited to creating designs for glass enameling. Finished PMC pieces can be enameled with beautiful transparent colors using traditional techniques such as Champleve and Basse Taille. The advantages for the jewelry designer who doesn't do enamel are great – there is far less preparatory work to be done, it's easy to do, and you can get fantastic results.

Safety First
Some enamels are lead-free, but all enamels contain silica, which is a hazard to breathe. Always wear a dust mask when working with dry enamels, and work in a place with good ventilation.


Enamel and PMC Pendant
with Freshwater Pearl

Tips on Using Enamels with PMC
by Alice Alper-Rein
Add vibrant bursts of color to your PMC creations with glass enamel powders. Fine silver is the perfect surface upon which to apply enamel since it doesn't fire scale. A person could spend a lifetime learning the ins and outs of enameling but here are some easy methods, adapted for PMC to get you started:

1. When creating a PMC piece for enameling, use a minimum 6 card thickness (7 card thickness if a texture will be added) of PMC+ or PMC3 (enameling on thinner pieces will require counter-enameling on the back of the piece)

2. Instead of using fine silver cloisonné wire to created cells to fill with different enamel colors, use a PMC syringe to simulate cloisonné wire. Use water or PMC slip to close any gaps between the base and the syringe drawn "wires."

3. If you prefer, you can create your syringe drawing separately, dry it and then add it to the base clay using slip and/or water, instead of creating a freehand drawing with the syringe directly on the base clay. Here's how: Place your artwork under a lubricated, clear plastic page protector. Use a syringe to trace the design on top of the plastic. Dry it right on the plastic. When the syringe drawing is dry, carefully move it into place on top of the base clay. Moisten the syringe drawing with water so it softens up enough to snugly fit on the base clay. Reinforce it with thin slip.

4. Deeply textured rubber stamps also create wonderful "cells" to fill with enamels. The raised designs on rubber stamps create the depressions in the clay to fill with enamel powders.

5. All bails, holes for jump rings and pin backs need to be in place BEFORE the piece is enameled; so make them a part of your design.

6. When initially firing the PMC piece that will later be enameled (even when using PMC3), fire to 1650 for at least 10 minutes. This will insure that the piece won't continue to shrink when fired to temperatures of 1475F-1500F, (the temperature required for enamel powders to fuse to the silver).

Get the rest of this tutorial at Metal Clay Connections. FYI, this is a PDF File.