Fine silver is an excellent source for enameling. PMC artist Mary Ellin D'Agostino has even developed a new technique for adding the enameling into the clay before it is worked into a design.

I believe that most bead stores and ceramic shops would agree to be a firing station if they understood what was in it for them. Firing stations charge between $5.00 per kiln load up to $10.00 per piece to be fired, and most people want to wait for their pieces to be fired. That means between 20 minutes and an hour of shopping. Most of my students say that they would prefer having someone fire their pieces in a kiln as opposed to learning how to use a torch. Locally we have an excellent firing station in a bead store.

The real advantage of the metal clays is that you can learn to make one-of-a-kind pieces that reflect your style for a small percentage of the price and minimal training compared to years of training in traditional metalsmithing.

The ideal silver clay kiln is digital since the silver clay requires soaking, or holding, the target temperature. The easiest way to hold the temperature is with a digital controller. The length of hold time varies depending on the type of clay.

Art Clay Silver: cone 011, hold for ten minutes

1) Select the cone number above for the silver clay you are firing. Place that cone on the kiln shelf. Select a cone for the Kiln Sitter that will make the witness cone on the shelf bend to maturity. (For instance, you may need a cone 09 in the Kiln Sitter to make the cone 010 on the shelf bend to maturity.)

2) Fire the kiln. Slow the kiln during the last hour to approximately 108 degrees F. per hour.

3) When the Kiln Sitter trips, raise the weight and press in the plunger. Gently lower the weight. The Kiln Sitter is now firing on manual and will no longer shut off the kiln, so use caution to prevent over-firing. Turn the kiln switch to Medium and continue to fire for 10 minutes. Then turn off the switch and allow the kiln to cool to room temperature.

Fire a test piece for your first firing. You may need to experiment with the switch positions to maintain the correct temperature during the 10-minute hold. It would also be easier to hold the correct temperature if you used a pyrometer, which shows the temperature inside the kiln.

One of the most desirable finishes for the Art Clay Silver is a perfect mirror finish. But getting that mirror finish is not exactly easy, especially by hand! And what exactly is a mirror finish anyway?

A mirror finish is a shiny surface that has been polished, or scratched, to a high shine such that you can almost literally see you reflection – like a mirror. The surface you are polishing doesn’t have to be completely flush (all at the same level) but it is easier to work on a fairly smooth texture. However, a textured or patterned surface can have a mirror finish on the high spots too.

In order to get a mirror finish, you use higher and higher grit sandpapers that each take away the rougher scratches and make smaller scratches until finally the scratches are so small you can barely see them. Think of a brand-new shiny chrome bumper.

First, start with a fired silver piece and a piece of low grit wet/dry sandpaper like 400. Work in one direction only, going from side to side or top to bottom. Keep going until the entire surface to be polished is uniformly scratched. You should not see any unscratched low areas. If your surface is not all level, then you’ll need to use a corner and your finger and work the sandpaper into the low spot so it gets scratched too.

Next, move up to a higher grit sandpaper like 600. This time, work in the opposite direction and in that direction only. (HINT: By working in opposite directions every time, it is easier to see if you’ve removed all of the previous grit’s marks.) Keep going until you can no longer see any of the previous scratches going the other way.

Don’t forget to clean your piece and surrounding area each time you change to a new grit of paper. If you are working wet (in a bowl of water or in the sink) you should change the water each time. This will prevent the frustration of contamination and having a piece of larger grit making a huge scratch in a nicely polished surface! If that happens, you have to start back at the beginning. Also, if you are working without water, it is not a bad idea to wear a dust mask to prevent inhaling silver and dust particles. Safety first!

Keep polishing like before in opposite directions with 1200 grit, then 2000 grit. Be patient, you’re almost there. There are special polishing papers that go up to 8000 grit and they work really well. You can also use metal polish to get a great mirror shine. We recommend Wenol polish. All you do is apply a small amount to a dry cloth, rub it on and then buff it off with a clean cloth.

Remember, with a mirror finish you should not be able to see any scratches. There’s no substitute for a good mirror finish and if you do it right, you will be thrilled with the results.

I had a 20-gram piece that I wasn't happy with. I kept thinking that if I just added one more thing here and there, it would be great. Eighty grams and one year later, it was time to give it up. Because it sat on a bureau in a hot dry room for a full year and because it was so big, it took a week to reconstitute. The piece I made with that reconstituted 80 grams is one of my favorites.

Your first few coats are vital to your project. The paste should be air-dried for the first coats, because if the leaf dries out before you get enough paste on it to weigh it down, the leaf will curl. Even when air drying, don't let too much time go by before adding the next coat, or again your leaf will curl.

One CZ lost all of its facets and became a rounded piece of glass. This was a real failure, and I had no solution for fixing it.

In my studio, I test all stones personally before they are worked into projects. If a stone fires correctly the first time, it will fire the same way (at the same temperature) in each subsequent firing.

As for you diamond, the answer is no. However, you can place a setting into your piece and set your diamond in after the firing.

Most people think that Liver of Sulphur gives silver an old, black effect. Wrong. When used correctly, you can get the color and effect you want: gold, amber, magenta, blue, and then black. Most colored pieces are made with Liver of Sulphur or enameling.

More practically it is a product that feels like clay and behaves like clay. However, when it is fired in a kiln, it becomes pure fine silver.