Jewellery Making Supplies Blog

This is a guest project designed by Jane Kharade. Jane is a craft designer who designs beautifully coloured pieces with the aid of clay, crystals and silver.

 

You will need:

• Rubber Stamp Mat – Fleur De Lis
• 7 x Silver jump rings   7mm heavy
• 2 x Silver jump rings   5mm heavy
• Silver curb chain 7”
• Silver 14.5mm plain Ring and Bar
• PMC3 – 25gm

Tools

• Scalpel 3 handle 10A blades
• 2 x Roller spacers
• Teflon mat
• Needle Files
• Hand held blow torch
• Soldering block
• Oxidising solution (Liver of Sulphur)
• Tweezers
• Pliers: round nosed, flat
• Emery paper fine, extra fine
• Wire brush/ metal burnisher

STEP 1

Carefully cut out four shapes from medium weight card. Use a 10A scalpel blade and a cutting mat then trim the card down on each one.

STEP 2

Roll out the PMC3 clay to approximately 1.5mm on a Teflon mat. Use a plastic roller, and two spacers to roll the clay to an even thickness. Lightly dust the Fleur De Lys rubber stamp with talcum powder and carefully but firmly press the PMC onto the stamp.
STEP 3

Carefully peel the PMC from the rubber stamp and lay it on the Teflon mat. Gently place the card template on top of the PMC and cut out the clay with a scalpel. Work quickly and cut out seven shapes in total, you may wish do make a couple of spares; choose the better ones for the bracelet and the spares can be made into pendants.

STEP 4

Use a 7mm Ø paintbrush protector and cut out a circle from the centre of each shape. Roll the clay into a ball and wrap it up immediately as it can be re-used.

STEP 5

Use a sharp instrument to make a hole in each charm for hanging.

STEP 6

Use a needle file to file all the rough edges on the charms, do this while the PMC is in its ‘dried out plaster’ state. The task will be time consuming once the PMC has been fired and is metal.

STEP 7

Fire the charms on a soldering block with a hand held blow torch. Make sure they glow steadily pale orange all over. Begin timing for 2.5 minutes – enough for pieces under 10g. This stage is known as ‘sintering’. Don’t worry if the charms become curved during firing. Simply leave them curved as I have or turn them over with tweezers and re-fire.

STEP 8

Oxidise the charms in a solution of Liver of Sulphur; use it in a well ventilated room as the fumes can be dangerous.

STEP 9

Polish the charms with emery paper, as the PMC is soft fine and extra fine will be sufficient to create a polished surface. Finish off by burnishing them with a metal burnisher.

STEP 10

Use pliers and add a 5mm jump ring to either end of a silver curb bracelet. Thread on the ring and bar and attach a 7mm jump ring to each charm and hang them from the bracelet. Make sure all of the jump rings are tightly closed. You have finished your Chunky Charm bracelet!

Designer Tip

Peel a little part of the clay away from the stamp and check that a good impression has been made in the clay. If the impression is weak simply apply more pressure to the clay with the fingers.

Make sure the holes made the charms for hanging will be big enough. As the charm shrinks during firing so will the holes.

Hope you enjoy the project and let us know what inspires you this summer!