[Jewelry making - Article 00673] - Re: [Orchid] PMC in general

[Noel]

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>      I guess my feeling is if you want to work in clay then why not
>     explore ceramics. 

    Oh, because when you work with ceramics...  you can't set stones in
    it, it shrinks, it is brittle, you can't solder it-- it is a very
    poor material for making jewelry! 

    I can understand not wanting to work in metal clay. I can understand
    not liking much (most?) of what is done in it. I even agree that
    most of the metal clay work out there is clumsy and amateurish.
    (Though I think it could be said that there's an awful lot of bad
    crap in virtually every medium. Nobody condemns oil paint despite
    the unbelievably bad work that is created using it!) 

    I can't understand maintaining a determined prejudice against the
    material itself. Like any other material or technique, it is value
    neutral. Everything depends on the skill of the user. While some
    materials/techniques (such as mokume gane) demand a high "threshold"
    of skill before you can even start, anyone can buy partly or
    entirely developed material from Reactive Metals and maybe
    elsewhere. The basic difficulty is no guarantee of a quality result.
    Is an ugly piece made of platinum encrusted with exotic stones and
    mysterious techniques any less offensive than a clumsy blob of PMC?
    I wouldn't say so. If anything, it is a greater waste, with less
    excuse! 

    In my, uh, humble opinion... 

--Noel

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