You can read about the two brands at:
http://www.PMCGuild.com
http://www.artclayworld.com
Lots of people say the difference is “Coke and Pepsi,” just personal
preference. For the main products, they are very similar. Both
offer clays that fire at the same temp, paste/slip, and pre-loaded
into a syringe. Art Clay also has Slow Dry, which takes two hours
to dry and that lets you do things like braid with it. And they
have Oil Paste, which is for repairs and I’m not sure what else.
PMC has sheet, or paper, which is rubbery in consistency and doesn’t
stick to itself. It was created for origami, but there are lots of
other fun things to use it for.
You should know that you can’t mix the two products together, or you
will get irregular shrinkage.
Each brand offers it’s own teacher training programs.
Elaine Luther
Chicago area, Illinois, USA
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
Studio 925; established 1992
@E_Luther
Christine,
We recently had that very debate on the PMC Guild web site, and
basically it boils down to personal preference. Both products are
silver (or gold) suspended in an organic binder, which is burned off,
leaving behind pure (fine) silver (or gold, if you’re using gold
metal clay.) I believe cost is approximately the same for both
types, and both types are fired the same way. Each offers a couple
different forms that aren’t found in the other (paste, paper,
syringe, etc.), but the primary product – the clay itself, in its
three forms – is so much alike as to be effectively identical. From
those who have used both, I understand art clay feels slightly
different from Precious Metal Clay. As a result, some people prefer
the way PMC works, while others like Art Clay better. For a lot of
artists, though, there’s no noticeable difference, and they work in
whatever they happen to get their hands on.
Once they’re fired, you can’t tell the difference at all, because
they leave exactly the same product behind – 99.9 percent fine
silver.
BTW, while Studio PMC has traditionally showcased primarily artists
working in Precious Metal Clay from Mitsubishi, our primary goal is
to showcase really great metal clay work. So if there are any artists
working in Art Clay out there who might be interested in sharing
their work, I encourage you to send it in. I always look at the
craftsmanship and creativity of the work first, and what it’s made
out of last, so if you have great work, it makes no difference WHAT
type of metal clay you used to create it – we’ll feature it!
Suzanne
Suzanne Wade
P.O. Box 265, Mansfield, MA 02048
Writer/Editor
Phone: (508) 339-7366
Fax: (928) 563-8255
@Suzanne_Wade1
http://www.rswade.net