Art&Soul: Charm School

My final workshop at Art & Soul was with Lisa Call. Her Charm School was another just wonderful class. Using PMC (precious metal clay) we made silver beads and charms.

The larger ones we baked in a kiln (below), but the smaller ones we could fire with a buthan-torch, as Lisa is demonstrating (above).

So the PMC is real silver, even a finer version than the usual sterling silver, grinded into a fine powder and mixed with some mystical medium to make it soft, like clay. Fairly expensive, but incredibly fascinating with all the opportunities!

The PMC baked in the kiln took about two hours to bake, but when they were finished you could take them straight out into cold air and into cold water to cool quickly.

At first they appear all white, as if there is a layer of white soot on them, but it´s all just the silver. During the baking the medium is burned away, and your left with pretty close to pure silver.

Giving the beads a good old brush with a brass-brush, brings out the shine.

All the markings on them can be made either by hand or imprint. Or adding layers. I bound mine together and sent them trough the tumbler for half an hour, to really make them shine.

After that I had them in another magical solution for patina, (or oxidization actually) and they turn dark.

Another round of polishing, and the contrasts are much easier to see.

Lisa then taught us how to make the garage-door-coil-chain, and I started to add the different components together. I´ll probably keep on adding charms when I get my hands on more silver.

And now for the piece-de-resistance:

I made a silver-copy of an old brass drawer piece Lisa had made a mold of. This is beyond cool if you ask me. (I drilled the little holes on the side by hand, I have to remember a hand-drill is on my Christmas-wish-list) This is going to be my new coolest-necklace-ever. (Next to the doll booklet pendant necklace I made earlier this week)

And since this is the last day, I just have to add another little treasure:

My little memory-book-pendant necklace I made for Artfest this spring got a beautiful art-addition from the always lovely Misty Mawn.

Lisa and Misty are just about the only two people I´ve met here that I also know from Artfest. It´s so good to see some familiar faces But by all means, it´s great to meet some wonderful new friends too! Thank you so much Glenny and Marie, for a wonderful week! The workshops hold such a high standard, and I´ve learned so much these past few days!