Silvery stuff.

It's December, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I spent the weekend doing fun things with friends - which included a workshop in enamelling on silver clay jewellery, two things I've itched to do for years now.

It was... interesting. Years ago, I had lots of fun with doing Fimo stuff, including really fine, intricate and delicate things. I've also done stuff with normal clay, but I've never used silver clay before - which is, basically, real silver, powdered and mixed with a water-based organic binding agent so you can shape it much like clay. It also looks like it - a light grey colour. Very, very unspectacular. Not much like clay, though, it costs a shitload of money - a bit more than 3 € per gram of clay. Working with it includes oiling up your hands and work surfaces to prevent it from sticking, and rolling it out into sheets, and cutting and stamping it - so it is a little bit like baking cookies, only in much more expensive.

Much like clay, the stuff dries out quite quickly, especially if you are working with fine stuff. Which you tend to do, obviously, when doing jewellery... so I was sort of medium successful only in getting done what I wanted to do. Still, I went home with three pieces that I'm quite happy with, and one that I will just sort of write off as my trial piece.



I might actually do something like this again. With more of a grasp on the material, though, and perhaps a little better plan... and, if I can, lowered expectations. Lowered expectations can be a really good idea at the start!