We know you love bronze clay, but have you tried copper clay yet??

Addie Kidd — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:37:00 GMT

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.

Playing with the new Bronze Clay -- the story of BC the snail

Jill Erickson — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:59:00 GMT

Meet BC. He's a snail I made using the new Bronze Clay developed by Bill Struve (research chemist). Bill's also the thoughtful husband of LaceyAnn Struve, who first began working in metal clay in 2006. It was LaceyAnn's interest in metal clay that inspired Bill to develop another medium for LaceyAnn to work with. I had the pleasure of meeting LaceyAnn and Bill at the recent Bead&Button Show. I was at a table at the "Meet the Teachers" event, and had a copy of the July 2008 issue of AJ open to Hazel's article about the new Bronze Clay. Next to the magazine, I had displayed my experiments with the new Bronze Clay. LaceyAnn perused these samples and then pointed at the snail. She asked me, "What's his name?" I told her that he didn't have one yet. She quickly replied, "Call him BC!" And there you have it.

BC was my exercise to learn about how this new clay behaved. Addie and I spent days in the workroom playing with the clay. I began by sculpting a snail body with wet clay. Then I impressed clay into a polymer clay mold I had made from my extensive seashell collection. I wanted to see how much detail could be picked up. After letting both components dry completely, I pasted the clay shell to the body using homemade paste (distilled water and some lump Bronze Clay). I set the assembly aside to dry completely.

Of course, I had to test how easily I could carve into the dry clay, so I made some refinements to the snail body using a craft knife. The clay carved like butter. Then I fired the assembly according to the Bronze Clay firing specifications (the details are in the July 2008 issue of AJ).

BC shrank during firing (refining the details even more), and picked up a beautiful color. But when we tested the strength of the shell's bond to the body, BC's shell popped off! No worries. This was an opportunity to test whether homemade lavender oil paste would work to bond fired Broze Clay to another piece of fired Bronze Clay. So, I mixed up a batch of oil paste by adding lavender oil to my homemade Bronze paste. I then used the oil paste to reattach BC's shell. I also used the paste as if it were slip to give BC's body some fluid curves. After the assembly was completely dry, Addie and I fired BC again. This time, his shell held fast.

I can't wait to get my hands on more of the new Bronze Clay, which makes its official debut in about a month at the upcoming PMC Conference at Purdue University. Let me know if you're attending the conference. I'll be there representing the magazine, attending lectures and demos, and hopefully talking with lots of AJ readers! Oh, and I'll bring BC too. Cheers, Jill

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We know you love bronze clay, but have you tried copper clay yet??

Playing with the new Bronze Clay -- the story of BC the snail