[Jewelry making - Article 00846] - Re: [Orchid] Precious Metal Clay Project

[Donna Wilson]

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    could a thin slurry of PCM be made, poured into a mold and then
    drained, leaving a thin coating which could be built up, removed,
    and fired to yield hollow objects? 

    I do pottery/sculpture as well as metals. As an art student several
    years ago, I used to make press molds for decorative appliques on my
    pots. I think your pouring a hollow form would work but you'd need a
    lot of experimentation to find just the right consistency of PMC and
    the right length of time to leave it in the mold to get the correct
    thickness. As would any hollow form in ceramics and metals, yours
    would have to have a hole not only for firing but for letting the
    excess slurry to be poured out. 

    I've made over a hundred tiny faces in silver PMC (original version,
    which shrinks 30-40%).  I used my wax molds and just pressed the
    little ball of clay in, let it dry a bit and popped it out. I
    normally cast little faces the traditional way but I was looking for
    very small faces to use for earrings without having to re-do my
    waxes/molds and PMC was the perfect solution. I saved myself 5 hours
    or so of normal sprueing time/cutting off the sprue/clean-up. The
    faces were perfect with very clear detail; two hours firing time, no
    investment, no flasks, no burn-out, no mess. 

Donna in VA


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