[Jewelry making - Article 00622] - Re: [Orchid] Article: Minimal Metalsmithing

[Lisa Gallagher]

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Here I am, posting on this again.

    Carla, I don't think there is (or should be) any disagreement about
    the clay being fine silver, and only fine silver. The debate is
    whether it's as dense as regular sheet and wire, or even cast fine
    silver piece. No matter how many microscopic air holes are in it,
    it's still fine silver. If you cast pieces, which have been said to
    not be as dense as regular fine silver, do you have a different stamp
    fot those pieces? Perhaps "CFS" for Cast Fine Silver? I doubt it. I'm
    not saying it shouldn't be made clear that the piece was made from
    metal clay, I make a note of that in any piece I do with it. I don't,
    and I don't think anyone should, try to hide the techniques &
    materials with which they've made something. It's both wrong & silly
    at the same time. If I use other techniques, like repoussee or
    filigree, I talk about that, too, in the description. I don't have
    stamps for those, though. But stamping isn't to clear up the method
    used to create something, it's meant to show what metals were used.
    It's fine silver, so it's stamped fine silver. 

    To all those that seem so bothered by the clay, there are a couple
    posts on Thursday's Digest that I thought were right to the point-
    "lighten up" and "loose the 'tudes". Many of you are starting to
    sound a bit threatened by it, and that's absurd. It's a medium with
    which jewelry can be made. A tool. It's not threatening to destroy
    jewelry making & metalsmithing as it's been know for thousands of
    years. Lots of other tools and materials have been accepted (although
    perhaps also fought in the beginning) over these last few millenia,
    and still metalsmithing as it was known thousands of years ago has
    survived pretty well intact. As I said once before, if you don't like
    it, don't use it! And just like I have to tell my 5 year old, if you
    haven't used it (or in his case, tasted it), you have to try it
    before you can decide whether or not you like it. Of course I don't
    mean how it looks, for that you just need to look at it. ;-) 

    Oh, and notice I've made no comments on whether I think it's got the
    same density as other forms of fine silver. I'll leave that to the
    metallurgists, and I will believe them. That seems to have taken
    over a lot of attention, but it seems for the wrong reason. No matter
    the correct answer, it really has nothing to do with whether or not
    you can make beautiful and durable jewelry from it, does it? Does
    rubber have the same density as fine silver? Does plastic, or papier
    mache or countless other materials used to make jewelry? Um, I don't
    think so. So there are some people out there who are potentially
    misguided about the density of the material (and again, please, I am
    NOT making a comment on it either way), I really don't see why that
    makes the material inherently bad. 

    As my old boss (from England) used to say, "Don't get your knickers
    all in a twist, folks". 

Lisa
Designs by Lisa Gallagher
www.lisagallagher.com

 
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