by Janet Trieschman

Created on: February 13, 2009

PMC is short for precious metal clay. Basically, it is a clay medium that has silver particles suspended within its make up. You can mold it and shape it into jewelry pieces as well as other applications. These applications seem to be only limited by your creativity. Be warned, it does dry out quickly and there is a bit of a learning curve to work with the clay because of it's drying.

There are two companies that make PMC material. PMC or precious metal clay has become the generic name but PMC and Art Clay are the two different brands of clay. The clay is formulated of pure silver, binder and water. When heated at high temperatures in a kiln, the binder burns off and the silver bonds to it's self leaving a slightly smaller piece (about 10 to 30 percent smaller depending on the kind of clay used) of almost pure silver.

This medium keeps expanding and now includes firing with a propane torch, making the craft a bit more affordable. The clay has been reformulated to also provide gold and bronze as mediums to manipulate.

In my opinion, the cost to get involved in this craft is not small. You can continue to collect tools and textures over a broad period of time. The basic required tools are not inexpensive and are related to traditional clay working, jewelry making and polymer clay tools. The silver itself varies in price on a daily basis due to the silver market changing on a daily basis.

There are a number of books and videos available to assist in training to use this medium. Many classes exist as well. I would highly recommend taking a course because often the tools are provided and you can learn what is needed and get a taste of the experience for a small amount of money. If interested, certification also exists. This allows you to teach the medium as well as get a small discount on materials.

Many artists work in silver clay and combine it with other mediums. Small sculptural pieces and a wide variety of jewelry pieces are the most popular applications. Silver clay is a fairly new medium and it's application and boundaries are still being explored.

Silver clay was developed in Japan during the 1990s by the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC) through attempts to join together ceramics (a rich and long standing Japanese tradition) and jewelry making. It was exported to the United States by 1996 and has been available here ever since.

Resources:
http://www.pmcguild.com
https://www.r iogrande.com
http://www.pmc-conference.com

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