Welcome to the wonderous and exciting world of jewelry clays.
I am very excited myself to finally work my way around to these gorgeous and versatile mediums, here on my site.
There are several types of clay that can be used to craft handmade jewelry pieces.
Some clays, such as porcelain and ceramics, are very delicate and require very specific set-ups.
Others, are much more sturdy and can be worked with using the same basic set-ups.
Today, I am going to introduce you to several types of clay that can be used for making jewelry. This is meant to be a brief introduction, but we will get into much more detail in later posts.
Ceramic Clays
Porcelain Clay ~ Kaolin
Stoneware Clay
Stoneware is dense pottery fired at high temperatures to make it resistant to liquids, or non-porous. It is made from clay, but is more durable than other kinds of pottery and earthenware. Stoneware gets its name from its stone-like qualities.
The key raw material in stoneware is either naturally occurring stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. The mineral kaolinite is present but disordered, and although mica and quartz are present their particle size is very small.
Earthenware Clay
Earthenware is clay fired at relatively low temperatures of between 1,000 to 1,150 degrees. This results in a hardened but brittle material which is slightly porous (small holes through which liquid or air can go through), therefore can not be used to contain water.
Production. A general body formulation for contemporary earthenware is 25% kaolin, 25% ball clay, 35% quartz and 15% feldspar.
Ball clays are sedimentary in origin. Ancient rivers and streams washed kaolinite (formed from decomposed granite) from its parent rock. As the streams flowed from upland area they mixed with other clay minerals, sands, gravels and vegetation before settling in low-lying basins to form overlaying seams of ball clay.
Polymer Clays
Polymer clay is a type of hardenable modeling clay based on the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
It typically contains no clay minerals, but like mineral clay a liquid is added to dry particles until it achieves gel-like working properties, and similarly, polymer clay is put into an oven to harden, hence its designation as clay.
Polymer clay is generally used for making arts and craft items, and is also used in commercial applications to make decorative parts. Art made from polymer clay can now be found in major museums.
It is an oven bake modeling material composed of polymers, resins, coloring agents and fillers. Not a natural clay, it is man-made from a plastic, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) base.
Polymer Clays come in a wide variety of brand and colors. The colors can me mixed and formed into canes and blends.
The setup for working with Polymer clay is very similar to that of metal clay with only a few notable differences which we will get into in a later post.
Metal Clays
Metal clay is a crafting medium consisting of very small particles of metal such as silver, gold, bronze, or copper mixed with an organic binder and water for use in making jewelry, beads and small sculptures.
Originating in Japan in 1990, metal clay can be shaped just like any soft clay, by hand or using molds.
After drying, the clay can be fired in a variety of ways such as in a kiln, with a handheld gas torch, or on a gas stove, depending on the type of clay and the metal in it. The binder burns away, leaving the pure sintered metal. Shrinkage of between 8% and 30% occurs (depending on the product used). Alloys such as bronze, sterling silver, and steel also are available.
Other Clays
There are other forms of clay that are used to make jewelry as well. I am not very familiar with these and will not go into too much detail about them. Feel free to explore these topics on your own:
- Air Dry Clay
- Epoxy Clay
- Cold Porcelain Clay
I am sure that I may have left a few out, but I am just getting started in the method and medium.
For purposes of this series, I will mainly be focusing on Polymer and Metal clays. Although at some point, I plan to work with porcelain clay.
I hope you have found this introduction useful and will follow along as we dive deeper into the world of jewelry clay.
In the next post, we will take a much closer look at Polymer Clay and discuss brands, colors and other information you will find helpful before starting out.