Silver clay has been around for over a decade now. Can you believe it??

Bronze clay was publicly introduced last year with great excitement.

Well wait no more. The next phase is here – copper clay!

(Shown at left is a photo of bronze clay next to silver clay - the contrast in each clay's quantity illustrates the vast price difference.)

The makers of BronzClay are in the final testing stages of a formulation of copper metal clay, with tentative plans to release it around spring time of this year.

But you don't have to wait until then to play with copper clay. There's another version of copper clay out on the market right now!

Hadar Jacobson, jewelry maker, author, and Art Jewelry magazine contributor, has been making her own copper and bronze metal clay for a number of years now. And she's just recently started selling her clay to the public.

Her clay comes in powdered form. It stores easily and you only make what you need – just add distilled water to mix up a batch. You can purchase powdered copper clay and bronze clay here.

Visit our Featured Videos page to check out Hadar's video – she'll show you how easy it is to mix your own copper or bronze clay.

 As she describes on her Web site (click the history section), Hadar originally had inconsistent firing results with her clays.

But that all changed when Bill Struve (the creator of BronzClay) revealed his unique firing technique: immersing a clay object in activated carbon (shown at right) and firing it in a kiln. The carbon helps to prevent oxygen from getting in the way of the clay's sintering process.

If you're craving more about alternative clays:

• Here at Art Jewelry, Jill, and I got to test bronze clay and its unique firing process before it was available to the public. You can read the article about it entitled "Now Entering the Bronze Age" in the July 2008 issue of Art Jewelry magazine. 

• And check out this blog post about bronze clay to see the adorable snail Jill made, named BC. He's so cute!

Here are some of Hadar's projects from the pages of Art Jewelry magazine:

March 2005: Learn how to make Bountiful Baskets, metal clay earrings. Click here for the download-able project.

September 2005: Learn tips and trips for working with metal clay. Click here for the download-able article.

July 2005:  Learn how to make a metal clay pendant. Click here for the download-able project.

July 2006: Learn how to make a metal clay link bracelet. Click here for the download-able project.

March 2007: Learn how to use metal clay and screen to make earrings.  Click here for the download-able project.

And if you do get any copper clay, be sure to post photos of your work in the Show Us Your Work section of our forums. Or if you're a subscriber, post some photos in the Metal Clay section of our Subscriber Gallery.

I can't wait to see what you create!

~Addie~

Special thanks to Elaine Luther and her blog, All Things Metal Clay for the link.