This video shows the process of mixing and reconstituting the homemade metal clay from my previous video. It also shows the clay's ability to hold a texture. Firing video here: • Homemade Copper and/or...
By the way, your recipe for making your own copper clay really got me excited. Until now, I've been discouraged by the high cost of packaged clay. I love that we can make our own. Thanks so much for making this information accessible to all of us. Yay!
Silver clay is more forgiving than base metal clays. Also, copper and bronze clay has to be fired at a specific temperature over a certain period of time. Copper is more forgiving in terms of firing temperature. The other trick is that you have to burn out the binder before you fire the clay. So, you have to fire this type of clay twice at different temps/ time periods. Another complication is that different kilns will require higher or lower firing temperatures. So, to start out it requires experimentation with your own equipment I am going to try to get my next video up within the next week or two. That video should give you a better understanding on how to fire it. There are several powdered base metal clays on the market. I would suggest that you research how a few of them are fired and experiment from there.
You are officially my HERO! I am brand new to this PMC stuff and knowing what goes into it really helps me understand what I'm about to do! YOU have just made it affordable for me to experiment and see the differences between this and polymer clay. which I've been working with since the 70's. You are my GURU. What I often think about is that the metal clay doesn't seem to be able to give the detail that I can get from my polymer. I will be trying to make a piece in polymer clay, and then paint it with slip and see what happens. Hopefully, if I leave a pin hole in the metal coating the polymer will burn up and leave me with a very detailed hollow piece. You have made an old lady feel young again!
Thanks for the videos - bought the stuff - tried copper first - mine seems too “rubbery” I’m thinking too much distilled water - leaving it out to dry for a day - any other suggestions?
Hey thanks for the 2 videos on how to make home made metal clay. Two questions. Have you ever made the clay using silver powder either fine or sterling? and second, when will your firing video come out. I'd like to know how that works.
+Kelly Noonan Silver powder is not cheap commercially, so I haven't tried it. In theory it would work without all the complicated firing steps. You could probably do it with a torch like with normal silver clay.
Thanks for posting this, but I do have some questions. We ordered and made our Metal Clay just as you did on the video, how ever. We fired it after drying and it just fell apart.turned into "sand" like. We fired it in coconut just as we do PMC so not sure what went wrong. DO you have any ideas?
Great videos! Thanks for the great info. I am interested in making a white bronze clay. Have you tried this? If so, any advise? Any plans to make more videos?? :) Thanks again!
I'm so excited. I got the atomized copper and the Methylcellulose F50 and have mixed it into the ratio. Now I'm ready to make copper clay. I will be using my butane torch to fire. Any suggestions? Thickness min and max? Size of piece min and max? Place dry piece on a kiln brick or solder-rite board or wire mesh? How to torch fire and times to use for copper would be great.
Excellent. Couple questions. Can you torch fire it? Also the clay I made had more a pot metal look on the back when I press molded it. Too Mich water? Plus I got copper all over my fingers. Your hands look pretty Clean. I beseech you...
Put some of the badger balm on your fingers first. Less water is better. Just until it starts to clump up while mixing. You cannot torch fire bronze, but there are examples of people torch firing copper. I haven't tried it though. Also, you could try a little more methylcellulose if it gets to squishy.
Hey Alan, I found that my clay was very crumbly, kind of like bread crumbs, even with more water. It didn't want to stick together. It certainly wasn't as smooth as on this video. Could it be the methyl cellulose? Have you ever experienced this? Rolling it out was almost impossible as it kept falling apart. I will persevere ...
Fiona Thompson hmm. I haven't had this issue but I'd experiment with different ratios of metal powder/ methylcellylose/ water. It's likely you have to much methylcellulose and/or too much water.
Peter Angel Badger "Balm" is a hand moisturizer which functions well with the clay as a conditioning agent. It also keeps the clay from sticking to your hands. There are also commercial products made specifically for the purpose, but I think it works fine.
Alan Wiggins Thank you Alan. badger make a lot of products. Can you please confirm its this product? muaustralia.com/products/mua-products/all/badger-badger-balm-21g/21201-1700
Longer the better I'd say. You want it to be a really fine powder. Grind it until you can't tell a difference between before and after turning the grinder on.
