What is Silver Clay, Again?

During exhibitions, I often hear questions about silver clay, my medium to create jewelry. I’ve been working with metal clay, in particular Art Clay Silver, since 2006, and I still get questions about the material. Is it a ‘real thing’? Is it good for making jewelry? And many more. This doesn’t surprise me. When I heard about silver clay the first time, I couldn’t believe such a material existed either. I came across it at a jewelry making supply website, and I left with some questions in mind. After a day or two, I revisited the website and finally the whole thing started to sink in. So, In this blog post, I’m going to answer some of the most common questions.

What is silver clay?
Silver clay is a mixture of silver powder, organic binder, and water. Art Clay Silver is a brand of silver clay that I use. It’s invented and made in Japan using 100% recycled fine silver.

Art Clay silver clay is made from recycled silver. Picture: Art Clay official.

How does silver clay work?
Silver clay resembles modeling clay, and it can be shaped like modeling clay. Once the clay has been shaped into a piece, it can be dried for example with a hair dryer or left to dry at room temperature overnight. In the dry stage, it can still be modified for refining and defining the shape. During firing using a gas torch, gas stove or kiln at 800°C (1472°F), the organic binding material burns off and the silver particles sinter to form a solid structure of pure silver or 999 silver.

Steps in working with silver clay Art Clay Silver. Picture: Art Clay official.

Is it real silver after firing?
Once fired accordingly, the binders burn off and the silver particles are sintered to become solid fine silver.

Once fired accordingly, silver clay becomes silver. Yes, genuine silver.
In the picture are my handsculpted and handmade silver pendants, decorated with synthetic stones.

So, is it real solid silver, or just kind of a coating like silver plating?
It’s solid silver through and through.

Is silver clay easy to work with?
I can say silver clay is very accessible for beginners, especially if you’re familiar with clay work. Just simple tools needed to start with, and firing can be done using a handheld torch or on a gas stove. Just like every other creative field, you can create simple pieces or go on further to the advanced techniques (combining silver clay and glass or New Mokume Gane to name a few) as tools to create more elaborate art pieces as an artist.

I’ve tried silver clay. Why does it dry out as soon as I start working with it?
Well, it’s a water-based material, so the moisture will evaporate when exposed to air. Knowing the techniques to work with silver clay is the key. But really, it’s no different than any other creative fields for example watercolor painting (I’m a watercolor artist too). You perhaps can easily get paint, paper, and brushes, but to produce a decent painting, it helps to know the basic how-to. I recommend to attend a silver clay intro class with a certified instructor to get the basic know how.

What if I didn’t succeed in shaping my silver clay piece?
Nothing should go to waste. All dry silver clay pieces can be reconstituted to be a shapeable clay again. There are several Youtube videos on how to reconstitute dry silver clay and maybe I will also write about it in the future!

I hope this blog post is useful. Let me know if you have any metal clay questions! Subscribe to my newsletter for more from my studio.

---

SVVA Jewels Newsletter

Leave this field empty if you're human:

---