Experiments with PMC silver clay - part 1

I finally bought some PMC3 silver clay and started to experiment a few weeks back. PMC3 is supposedly the easiest of the metal clays to fire with a torch, but it is hideously expensive so I was very nervous about using it. Silver metal clay results in objects containing 0.999 pure silver, so has a higher silver content than sterling silver. I prepped myself by watching lots of You Tube videos and reading blog posts by PMC gurus. This is my basic equipment:



1. Acrylic block for rolling out the clay onto, but any non-porous smooth surface will do.
2. Plastic roller for rolling out the clay. Mine has rubber rings to help with rolling out a level thickness of clay, but 4 playing cards on each side of the clay to rest your roller on while rolling will do just as well.
3. Tiny plastic pot with an airtight lid for saving bits of unfired clay or slip. (Slip is ground down unfired clay with a little water added to make a thick paste)
4. Fine files for smoothing the clay in the unfired stage. I bought a pack of 5 quite cheaply for the local hardware store.
5. Brass brush for polishing after firing
6. Agate burnisher for bringing up a shine after firing and brushing. I have read that the back of a teaspoon could be used for this, but haven't tried it myself.

Something else which is necessary is olive oil - I actually used rapeseed and it worked just fine. There are many products available from PMC suppliers, like badger balm, but why bother when most people have something already in their kitchen. It is basically just used to stop the clay sticking to the surface of the tools it comes into contact with. I just put some onto a piece of kitchen roll and lightly rubbed down my equipment - acrylic block, roller, molds etc. Another thing not pictured which is useful is a fine(very fine) artist's paintbrush.

My torch is a simple small butane torch bought on ebay and it will need to be filled with butane gas (lighter fuel) before use.

I shaped my clay by hand into circles about 13mm across and used metal charms and stamps on them. I also made a hole with a needle to be able to put a ring though later. You only have a few minutes to work with the clay before it starts to dry and crack.



I left them to dry for 24hrs on a windowsill over a radiator. I filed the charms to get smooth edges and filled in any small cracks or nicks with slip and a fine paintbrush before firing. To be continued....!

The year of the Rabbit

To celebrate the recent Chinese new year, I now stock these incredibly cute bunny beads in my Etsy shop.

Friday's moan

A major gripe of mine is companies and and businesses who don't look after after their customers and who provide poor customer service. One of these companies is the Swedish communications company Telia, my telephone and internet provider.

Yet again my telephone connection is not working and I can't receive or make calls. When it happened last time I reported it via their internet site and it took them 2 days to reply, by which time my phone was already working again. This time I decided to call them via my mobile, a pay-as-you-go, but thought it would be worth it if the problem got fixed more quickly. I was placed in a phone queue with 18 calls in front of me. After 20 minutes I was number five in line, when the call just disconnected. Very annoying! So I have had to contact them again via internet. I won't hold my breath for their answer. Their broadbroad leaves a lot to be desired too, with regular breaks in the connection.

Will I receive any compensation for intermittently being without a landline? For them not providing the service that I am paying big money for? No, of course not. You apparently have to be without a connection for 15 days before they will compensate you for lack of service. This sucks, Telia.

As a consumer, I suppose the only power I have in this situation is to put my money where my mouth is and look for another provider when my current agreement is up.



The photo shows a piece by the British artist Banksy, which I felt was fitting for this post!

First attempts

today's project has included trying out the new stamping set I just bought. I was fairly pleased with the results - which also included my throwing out a number of failed stamped tags (and some swearing!). Thanks goodness for all the demonstation videos on You Tube!

Thinking ahead to Christmas gifts

Bambi invasion

Well, I've never seen anything like this in all my time in Sweden. At 10am I was drinking my morning coffee and got a glimse of what I thought was a huge dog in my vegetable patch. Except it wasn't a dog, it was a deer! And there were 3 of them!

They don't usually come into residential areas like this unless its a really hard winter and the ground is frozen. Like last winter I saw deer tracks in the road. But they came at night then. We've only had snow for a couple of days and the weather is pretty mild, so it would seem strange that it would be hunger that drove them here in the middle of the day.....

I am hoping for a huge moose next time.

What a difference a day makes....

......just 24 little hours. Monday I took a walk in our beech forest to capture the golden carpet of fallen leaves. The very next day, winter had arrived.

Cute

Just got these sweet animal beads into my Etsy store. Alice and I have been cooing over the bunnies ever since they arrived.

Craft show, Vidablick

Now I've been bitten by the craft bug, I booked a table for myself at a local craft show, Vidablick in Bankeryd. Here's a few pics of my table just before we opened:


I really enjoyed taking part and considering my table was squashed into a corner in a small room in a building away from the main event, I did pretty well.

New pieces I had with me:

Yum

A couple of weeks back I got take part in a Buzzador campaign and had some free and delicious parmesan cheese from Zeta delivered to my door. Later that very same day, my neighbour Lotta came by with about a kilo of wild mushrooms - trattkantareller in Swedish - so I made up a new recipe, mushroom and bacon parmesan-topped toasties....


...as Alice doesn't like mushrooms I got to eat them both myself :D