Good to be back. I was at jewelry school for two weeks. I took a course in Silver Clay and casting. The silver clay is .999 fine silver which has it's advantages and disadvantages in jewelry. yes it's softer than sterling, but it doesn't tarnish like sterling. keep in mind these are my first pieces so don't judge too harshly LOL. hope everyone's been well and WOW PMs have been going up since I've been away!
Thanks a lot. It's $310 for 6 nights and 5 days, three meals a day included. Then depending on the course you have to pay for materials and a base tool kit. For Silver clay it was 250, but I bought $150 of extra materials, which is how the instructors make their money. Casting was $150 but would have been more but I had my own sterling scrap to melt. Here in the states you can't stay at any motel for 310 per week much less 3 meals a day. In fact the rooms are just like a motel. Here's a link to the school. http://www.lapidaryschool.org/
Great work,man! This PMC metal work has my mind working overtime with possibilities .... What temperatures were these lovely pieces fired at? The costs of the course look very reasonable.. a value added holiday
Some of it, most of it PMC 3 is fired slightly less than 1200, PMC + a little higher. I could have it backwards LOL, my instructor was the only one allowed to actually operate the kiln. But we were shown how to fire with a butane torch which works just fine for most projects.
That course sounds like very good value. I did a silver smithing course some years ago. - nowhere near as much and cost about the same.
Nice work - the star & cross are my faves. I have a retail business in UK which sells a lot of design-led silver based in Manchester - plus a lot of rock n roller clients like members of bands - Kasanian, Elbow, Kings of Leon, New Order, Charlatans, Stone Roses, plus all the Corrie actors - if these were a bit larger they're exactly the kind of thing they're buying... x
Good job, for a first go. Hope you enjoyed your trip. Nice natural silver look, but you will never get a good polish (as against 925) Which your tutor probably pointed out. Enjoy your work. Cheers Aum
