[Jewelry making - Article 00352] - Re: [Orchid] Article: Minimal Metalsmithing

[R . E . Rourke]

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    I got shot down when I suggested PMC was in fact a pyramid scheme
    and that paying to sell it when it can be bought by anyone from a
    wholesaler was as close to mlm as one could get ( read: pmc guild's
    certification scheme). all the pmc -ers wrote art is art. and while
    ars longa vita brevis. my vita in playdough was breva a long time
    ago. 

    the stuff doesn't work. it can't be remelted as Nanz put it and has
    no viable uses in the metalsmithing world. I bought a bunch of the
    24kt stuff (until I realized it was made by the detestsable
    Mitsubishi corp.) thinking - oh great. shortcuts!! if I want a
    strangely incorporated and shaped hinge, voila' mould it, fire it and
    solder it in place, or fuse it there. much to my amazement it had
    zero crystalization capacity and the particles kind of sat there like
    clay!. 

    so then I contacted Tim McCreight (lovely man whose contributions to
    the self-education of many a metalsmith are profound), and he
    confirmed my speculations on alloying it to make it stronger. which
    I tried. it didn't work. Later my suspicions were as yours, he must
    be making financial gain from it. and is as their consultant, and has
    been, as one of the first "to help develop it for the U. S. market
    "as mitsubishi's own reps put it. 

    It should as any art, be labelled with the medium used to make a
    given piece. 

    Plain and simple, and a no-brainer there. that's why JL Collier and
    me, at least, were dumbfounded that Metalsmith magazine chose to
    call it fine silver - it ain't that. besides fine silver is a third
    the cost of pmc. and then when one adds the bucks to teach it, or
    resell it. we're talking thousands to go up the ladder to the
    highest certification levels. ( by the way anyone wishing
    Certification in PMC: I'll be happy to send you a beautifully
    engraved diploma that states you are a Master PMC Artist! for only 10
    bucks! if you submit any image of a piece of your pmc work. or at
    least polymer or plasticene coloured silver, or gold that looks like
    PMC. Why should PMC guild get all the revenue??) 

    actually I think it's a great thing for say an OT department or camps
    and schools to create a semi-permanent, albeit expensive, gift item,
    or keepsake out of a metal-like product with no skills in jewelry
    making necessary to form an adornment ( or in some cases - horrid
    pieces of mixed media, being taught by the thoroughly untalented at
    ridiculously high fees that they- M&K D- have been getting away with
    for years, unscrupulously so) that is wearable. There are exceptions
    as you said, Gordon Uyehara for example is a metal clay prodigy. but
    lets be honest folks. anyone can stamp clay and bake it off and wear
    it. but to sell it as fine jewelry when most are using CZ's to"
    embellish" it speaks volumes to me. 

    I suppose my main concern with the entire PMC thing is that people
    are getting scammed. and scammed into thinking they are jewelers.
    and soaked by a company that started out questionably at best
    regarding human rights and ethics. (another reason for my puzzlement
    at Tim's involvement- not that I believe that patriotism has an iota
    of credence, but that given their history, each individual must
    choose to be associated with such a corporation or not). Art Clay has
    had none of the MLM, or scamming that I have seen associated with the
    PMC raquet. But I do know that when I posted a formula for making a
    metal clay on about. com a few years back, Mitsubishi's legal
    department "recommended I cease and desist " and was potentially in
    violation of their patent. which I in turn presented that "an art
    material could not be monopolized" and since they Mitsubishi, was not
    exemplary, or even compliant in upholding any legal judgments against
    them, never heard from them again. So if you must use metal clay let
    it be ART Clay, and if you must make adornments out of the stuff, or
    enter it into jewelry competitions ( having a separate category to
    acomodate that media) Please label it as metal clay.
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