Hi everyone! I've done a search and haven't seen this addressed anywhere in the Metal Clay forum. I am currently making my broken china jewelry using the stained glass method. I'm not exactly happy with the finished product and would like to try using PMC or Art Clay. Has anyone experimented with making pendants using broken china and PMC? From what I have read, it may be possible to create a bezel around the china shard using PMC3, and fire it all together. I would love to be able to be much more creative with my pendants, but feel somewhat limited with using the copper foil/solder technique. Also, would it be possible to successfully fire just using a hot pot instead of investing in a kiln? I have never done any type of clay work and from the projects I have seen on this forum, I can't wait to get my hands on it! Any suggestions or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

~~ Tanya

Tanya--I've seen projects in metal clay books like you describe--Sherri Haab's mixed media book or Metal Clay for Beaders---there is also a good metal clay forum on Yahoo! & you can search there. Many of the artists on the forum also chime in here from time to time. I also find that people who sell PMC/Art Clay are good resources for technical questions--Tonya at Whole Lotta Whimsy http://www.wholelottawhimsy.com/ seems to know ceramics. Good luck. Anne

Tim McCreight's "Working with Precious Metal Clay" has a project on this very thing. You can make a bezel with PMC or Art clay silver, but he says to make a plaster model of the exact size of the broken china. Then when you fire it you put the plaster model inside the bezel so it won't shrink any smaller than the original piece. I haven't tried it yet, but plan on it. His book is a good one for starting out.

Thank you both for your responses. I have been able to find a PMC basics class and hopefully the instructor will be able to guide me in the right direction!

Thanks again.

~ Tanya