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August 30, 2004
PMC is fun...tell me more...
I had the best time in my class yesterday!!! I went in with a completely open mind, and just played and experimented...no stress, no plans, no expectations...I didn't know if I'd love it or hate it but Sarah (our fearless leader) made it all very easy...What's so funny is I didn't keep any of my pieces shiny...I used the liver of sulfur and dipped everything in sight! I was so enamored with the colors that I didn't leave anything shiny - how weird is that??? And look how the pendant matches that frit bracelet - excellent! I bought lots of supplies and plan to be making more of these goodies, yes indeedy...I have metalsmithing supplies, but hauling them out is always a pain - PMC seems much easier and I get immediate gratification with it...
Of course I'm now looking for ideas, suggestions, tips, tricks and anything else ya'll might know about PMC. My friend Mick suggests I take a series of classes from Celie Fago...her stuff is fabulous! But I promise - beads are my first love, beads are where I will stay and beads are what you'll see from me on a regular basis...I promise!!
Here's a link to LOTS of PMC related sites and suppliers...PMC me!
If you're looking for the Pickings page from yesterday, never fear - you can find it here: English Tweed Pickings
Posted by Donner at August 30, 2004 11:47 AM
Comments
Hi Donna
I really love the look of the PMC pieces you made. The designs are cool, and I LOVE the way they look with the shine removed. I can totally see these pieces in really cool, elaborate necklaces. I've been wanting to branch out into different styles of jewelry lately and I've been looking for alternative materials. This PMC stuff has me intrigued---I'm going to have to go do a google search and learn a little more about it. I'd love to learn to make woven/fringe style jewelry and I bet PMC pieces would look great mixed with lampwork.
Oh the pickings yesterday were really pretty. My favorite was the bracelet at the bottom of the page. I especially loved the cocoa beads with gold dots--I wanted to touch them!
Have a good one
Posted by: Rachel G. at August 30, 2004 10:27 AM
I loved your pickings yesterday...I'm bummed that I missed them!
I have a question that may or may not be dumb...but what the heck, I'll ask anyway...what is PMC? These pieces are really cool, but don't appear to be glass...are they?
Posted by: Jean at August 30, 2004 11:05 AM
PMC stands for Precious Metal Clay. its .999 Fine silver that is in a clay binder, so you can shape it like clay, burn off the binder and have a silver piece of jewelry left...its non-toxic and you don't have to have a kiln, a simple $20.00 hand torch and some tools will get you started... silver clay is not cheap, but considering the number of pieces you can get from it, its reasonable...visit www.celiefago.com for some cool (grown up) jewelry...its been around for a long time and I've resisted as long as I could, but I saw some potential for pieces to coordinate w/ my beads, so I took the plunge...
Posted by: donner at August 30, 2004 11:43 AM
Your PMC projects look great! How did you get the colors on the metal? I thought liver of sulpher simply "aged" the silver, like tarnish? (I missed out on the raku jitterbug frit the other night...You snooze, you lose,on Val's website! Anyway, What a great match with your PMC projects!)
Posted by: Sharon at August 30, 2004 03:32 PM
Donna, your PMC pieces are great and they look great with your beads. I had wanted to try my hand at this but wasn't sure if you need a kiln or some special type oven. It sounds great that this can be done with a torch. Keep making those awesome gems for us to look at.
Posted by: linda at August 30, 2004 04:45 PM