Making the Most of Your Precious Metal Clay (PMC) Use.

When using Precious Metal Clay it is important to remember that it is an expensive material. Therefore, you want to make sure that you do not waste any of it. PMC is not a clay really, it just looks like clay. Every bit of it can be used to make a piece.

Here are some tricks to making the most out of your Precious Metal Clay:

Whenever you open a new package of PMC, take out just what you need to use, then seal the package up again to keep your clay as moist as when you opened the package.

Then, as you use the clay, and cut off scraps, put the scraps back in the package as well.

As you are working with the clay on your work surface, it will dry out. To keep the clay moist, dab a small paint brush in water, and brush it over the drying areas. PMC typically dries the fastest on the outside surfaces that are exposed to air.

Once you have used the PMC, and it starts to dry out too much to be easily used, put it in a ziplock bag overnight with some drops of water. By morning it will absorb the water, and be usable again.

If your clay has become completely dried out, you can still reconstitute it.

Take your lump of dry PMC. Place it in between two sheets of paper. Get a rolling pin, and roll the PMC between the two sheets of paper until it crumbles into dust. Then remove the top sheet and bend the bottom sheet into a U shape and pour the powder into a ziplock bag. Add water little by little, over time, to reconstitute the PMC. The more water you add, the thinner the consistency of the PMC will be. If you want to make paste or slip out of it, you will add more water. If you want to get the consistency of lump clay, then you add less. Leave it overnight or over 2 or 3 three nights for the water to properly reabsorb.

All PMC can be reconstituted in this way, except for PMC sheet. Many experienced Precious Metal Clay artists make their own slip and fill their syringes with reconstituted clay. This is one way not to waste any particle of the material.

Another hint is to save all of the dust that gets filed off your green pieces as you green finish them. The dust is great for making slip. Just throw it in a small jar with water and keep adding to it until you get the slip consistency that you like. Depending on what you are using the slip for, you may want to keep 2 or 3 different densities of slip. One for finishing a rough surface, another for filling in cracks. When you make your own, you can control the feel of it until you get the consistency exactly where you would like.

Just remember not to waste any particle of your PMC. You will be amazed at how many pieces you can make from one small package.

Learn more about this author, Paula Atwell.