Starting in Silver Clay

I've been a bit busy this week with a poorly daughter and have not had much chance to make any new pieces. So, I thought I'd show you come of the silver clay jewellery I have made this year.

Silver clay is an area I am really keen to get into as it allows complete creativity and originality - which I love! I have been very lucky to have been given a kiln, tools and assay office membership as presents - it's just the clay that I have to buy!

This is my most favourite piece of jewellery that I have made. It was made quite simply by rolling the clay over a template, cutting a circle shape and making a hole. Then sanded, fired, oxidised (I think that's the word) and polished! This was also my first ever attempt at silver clay!

I really do LOVE this piece :) Below is a pendant that I am very proud of. It is a silver holly leaf which was created by painting a holly leaf with silver clay paste. After several coats it gets fired, where the leaf burns away, leaving  a perfect imprint of the holly leaf in the silver - this needs a hole, but am too scared to drill it in case it falls apart!

The below pictures are a couple of smaller pendants. The one on the left is a heart shape with random circle patterns on top - quite simple really. The one on the right is a scalloped rectangle with silver clay syringed on top and flattened to create the pattern. This was also oxidised, but wouldn't go a dark black colour - instead it seems to have come out in these gorgeous coppery brown shades!

The last couple of pictures are a selection of things I've experimented with when using up smaller bits of clay I had left over. The round one is made from a button mold and I plan to attach this to a ring in the future - same with the double teardrop shape which I also think would look fab on a ring. the other two are a simple bead and hollow teardrop pendant - sooo shiny! The picture on the left are a couple of pendants, that I'm not that happy with, but they have been made and there's no going back once it's fired - someone might buy them one day!

Actually I do have one more picture - this is of a ring I made a couple of weeks ago. It's a bit rough round the edges, and took me several failed attempts to get the band to stay as one piece and fill in the join so it was stable - but I got there eventually! It's not really good enough to sell, but it is my first one, and I want to keep it lol!

Which is your favourite?

Thanks for reading x