1. Easy
  2. Calendar project 6 steps

Daisy delight

A lovely winter flower bracelet to take you through the cold season into the New Year. By Paula Louise Paton, PMC Shop

Making jewellery designs in sterling silver for the past ten years Paula has always been happier with a blowtorch in her hand than an iron! Paula now owns the successful Learnsilverclay teaching studio based in Sussex where she has been teaching metal clay courses for almost four years. Paula also runs PMC Shop which stocks one of the largest selections of metal clay products in the UK including all the major brands of metal clay.

Designer Tips

  • Gather all your equipment before you start. You don’t want to be rummaging for things when you’ve got your clay out on the work surface.
  • Don’t be tempted to mould all your flowers and then add the stones. If the surface of the clay starts to dry you will find that cracks will appear as you press the stones in. Do one complete flower at a time.
  • If you want to remove any fingerprints which are a result of pressing the clay into the mould use a paintbrush and brush the back of your piece with water, then allow to dry.
  • To see if your metal clay project is dry place it on a mirror. Any moisture in the piece will show up as a condensation mark on the mirror.
  • When you are setting up the flowers for soldering, if you put the cut side of the jumpring against the flower the solder will close the jumpring as it solders it to the flower.

MATERIALS

  • 2 x 16g packets PMC 3
  • Flower mould
  • Pack of 10 4mm cubic zirconias
  • Pack of 20 Mini jumprings
  • Pack of 10 3.75mm hard
  • Sterling jumprings
  • 11mm trigger clasp
  • Easy solder paste syringe
  • Playing cards
  • Badger balm
  • Sanding pads
  • Steel or soft brass brush
  • Agate burnisher
  • Blow torch
  • Torch firing block

Step 1

Add a little badger balm to your hands then rub your hands over the mould. Open your pack of clay and take out enough clay to fill mould flush with the surface. You don’t want any excess over the edge of the mould which would need cleaning up later. This would mean extra work and a waste of clay so should be avoided. Turn out your piece of moulded clay onto a playing card.

Step 2

Make a small indentation in the centre of the flower so it’s easy to line up the point of your Cubic Zirconia (CZ). Press the CZ into the wet clay until it’s flush with the surface using the flat end of your needle tool. Then using the sharp end of the needle tool continue to press the stone in until it is below the surface of the clay and you can see a clear rim of clay around the top of the stone. You will need to do this carefully so you don’t slip off the stone with the needle tool and mark the surrounding clay. It is important that the stone is below the surface of the clay rather than flush with the surface to ensure it is held in place after firing. Place to one side to dry and repeat six more times using a different coloured CZ for each flower.

Step 3

Make sure the flowers are completely dry (see tip) then clean up with a sanding pad making sure to take off any rough edges. Fire with a blow torch or in a kiln. Allow to cool naturally after firing. If you quench your hot pieces in water it will shatter the stones.

Step 4

You now want to solder on the loops to allow you to link your flowers together to form a bracelet. To do this you need to: Close up 14 mini jumprings. Place your flowers on a heat proof block and squeeze a blob of easy solder paste on either end of the flower with the CZ’s facing upwards. Butt a jumpring up against both sides of the flower where you’ve placed the solder paste making sure both surfaces touch. Do this for each flower so that you can solder one after another without the need to stop in between. Heat one flower at a time using a gentle circular movement concentrating the heat on the flower rather than the mini jumprings. When it becomes hot enough the solder paste will melt and join the two jumprings to the flower. When you have soldered all 7 flowers let them cool naturally as before.

Step 5

Once cool you will notice that the mini jumprings have discoloured during the soldering process. This is because they are Sterling silver and is caused by the copper content in the silver oxidizing when heated. To remove this discolouration you can either soak in safety pickle if you have access to it or gentle remove with a sanding pad. You can then brush each flower with a steel or brass brush. This gives a nice satin finish which is a good contrast to the sparkly stones. If you like high shine used an agate burnisher or place in a tumbler.

Step 6

You are now ready to assemble your bracelet. Using 3.75mm hardened Sterling silver jumprings (for extra strength) link each flower together making sure to close each jumpring tightly and neatly. Also use a hardened jumpring to attach an 11mm trigger clasp and as a loop for the other end. Your bracelet should now be ready to wear.

Extra Project

You can also use the same techniques to make the matching earrings.

Resources:

All materials and equipment featured are available from PMC Shop

To order visit www.pmcshop.co.uk or call Paula on 01825 722428

Details of Paula’s metal clay courses are available at www.learnsilverclay.co.uk