"What is Precious Metal Clay or PMC?"

PMC was developed by scientists in Japan in the 90’s.  This combination of binders and metal particles form clay that can be modelled into silver or gold jewellery.  The clay comes in 4 different forms: lump, sheet, slip and syringe.  All are water soluble and easy to use.  Once dry, PMC is fired and the binders are burnt away leaving you with 99.9% silver.  All PMC clays shrink during firing, the amount of shrinkage depends on the type of clay used.

Clay Types

There are three different types of clay; PMC Standard (or Original) is a slow firing less dense clay and has 28 – 30% shrinkage, PMC+ is a quicker firing more dense clay that has 12% shrinkage and PMC3 is the fastest firing most dense clay that has the same shrinkage as PMC+ (12%).

Clay forms

Lump clay can be rolled out and textures added to create interesting effects on you piece, worked into coils, cut into shapes or pressed into moulds.

Sheet clay can be folded like origami, cut with scissors or punched with small craft punches, which can then be added to other forms of clay with slip to give a raised texture.

Slip clay is used for joining pieces, repairing cracks and adding texture, it can also be used to make wonderful organic pieces by simply painting layers of slip clay on leaves or other interesting foliage.

Syringe clay is used for filigree pieces, adding texture to lump clay, joining and repairing cracks.

FUSION GLASS LTD, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND