Pam Lloyd and the Magic of Silver Clay

Pam usually works with glass, making beads, but she became interested in working with silver after discovering precious metal clay. This is fine particles of recycled silver held together with an organic binder to form a clay that can be shaped, modelled and textured. When fired the binder burns out and the piece becomes solid silver. It has a higher silver content than sterling being 99.9% pure silver. The drawback is that it is over twice the price of sterling silver and it is very fragile to work with, but I’m sure you’ll agree the end products are well worth it!

Pam has described the magic process through the photos below:

The clay is rolled out to an even thickness.

The clay can be textured.

A template is used to cut out the shape.

When the design has been cut out it must be left to dry. After this it can be tidied up and sanded. It is very fragile at this stage. I have broken bails off and hare’s legs before! This is a pendant textured with a real leaf. The oval was still wet when I took the photos.

Pendants cleaned up and ready to be fired.

Like magic it turns to silver after firing.

Finished Jewellery in the gallery.