Re-working old PMC

Jewelry Discussion
1

…i am getting ready to revamp my PMC production, but its been in
the ‘bisque’ stage for about 6 mths. Can I re-work it, or can I fire
it and it will still be ok?? the clay has started to brown a little,
but will this have much effect on the final product?

Tks
Nicole

2

You can rework it, resculpt it or add more clay to it up to and even
after firing. Discoloration has nothing to do with it.

Jackie Truty
Art Clay World, USA, Inc.

3 
or can I fire it and it will still be ok?? the clay has started to
brown a little, but will this have much effect on the final product?

Yep, BTDT. It will fire up just fine.

Elaine
http://www.CreativeTextureTools.com

4 
...i am getting ready to revamp my PMC production, but its been in
the 'bisque' stage for about 6 mths. Can I re-work it, or can I
fire it and it will still be ok?? the clay has started to brown a
little, but will this have much effect on the final product?

Nicole - If you have an item formed and it is leather-hard, you can
go ahead and fire it no matter how long it has been in that state.
If you would prefer to rework the item completely, you can grind up
the leather-hard pieces and add water to re-hydrate the clay and make
something else. This flexibility is part of the charm of working
with metal clay.

Sandra Graves

5

For all of you who are new to working with metal clay, there is a
wonderful Yahoo! group dedicated to the use of both brands of metal
clay, very similar to this list. (metalclay) There are experts and
new users and some of the original experimenters and experts who
participate. Over 3000 members. Tim Mc Creight has even been known
to write an answer occasionally.

To answer your question, the dark color you are seeing is just the
silver particles oxidizing. There is no problem firing dried pieces
that have been “hanging out” for a long period of time. If you want
to carve into it to re-work it you can certainly do that. By now all
of the excess water has probably evaporated and the clay has begun
to shrink and get really hard, so it might be a bit difficult, but go
slowly and you’ll be fine. If you hate it and want to re constitute
it, you can do that as well. There’s a great you tube video on re
constituting dry clay.

Good luck!
Lora
PMCC Senior Instructor
www.LoraHart.com
www.LoraHartJewels.blogspot.com