Forager's Silver Clay

1. Introduction: Welcome to my skill shack tiles forages silver. So in this class, you come with me on a trip down the Somerset lanes when I go out looking for interesting Berries, leaves, twigs, just some interesting textures, things that we can make molds off. And then we can turn into silver jewelry a little bit like this. Now it's awesome here in the UK, which I was his most inspiring time of year. So lovely. But if you can do this at any time, it doesn't have to be in the autumn. You also don't need to live in a rural area. You could maybe go out to a local park, even just looking around your garden, looking for things that you could make molds off. And then we can turn into lovely pieces of slightly with early organic pieces of jewelry. Se silver clay is wonderful material. It's a little bit like Potter's clay. It looks like parties claim it feels like Potter's clay, but it's made up or silver particles on organic binder on water. Basically, you can mold it and shape it however you like, and then you fire it with either a blowtorch or in a kill for this castle with blowtorch on . Bennett burns off with water, evaporates, burns off the organic binder, and it leads to pure silver. This is a beginner's class, so you don't need any prior experience. I do have another class on silver clay, which, if you're a complete beginner, you might want to start with. But it's not necessary. Andi, if you've taken the other class, then you'll have most of the tools and materials that you need for this one, you just going to need some moulding material on. There's also an optional extra in this cast on soldering. So if you'd like to take the next step on down, how Teoh sold the jump rings and then you can do that. And if not, then you can just get it. Say, I'm Theodora. I'm jewelry makeup artist, and I got started in jewelry making three. So okay, I did, of course, with my mother. My sister in law on was completely and utterly hooked on. Since that day, I've moved on and I have started doing more traditional techniques, but I there's still a place forcible play, and I make my master copies using it, so I hope you're going to. You enjoy this class on, you know, get inspires. If you've got any questions as we go through them, please leave a comment. I'll come back to you. Don't want anybody feeling stuck. I'm here to help Andi. I will in any way that I can. If you want Teoh see more of my work. We'll find out more about me. Probably the best place to do that would be on instagram, which is what I spend quite unhealthy amount of time. But it's Theodore a doctor. Golds G O U L D. Um, I would love to see you there. Do you stop by and say 2. Tools & Materials : So one of the things that I love about some place that you need very few traditional silversmith ing techniques to make beautiful piece of jewelry. I do do so traditional silversmith ing as well. But there's always another tool you need, and it can start to get very expensive. So silver clay is very first tile. Um, and although there are a few essential pieces that you're going to need quite a lot of the stuff, the stuff that you probably got around your home or you can find easily a couple of the pieces, which I consider to be essential. One of them is firing brick. So you're going Teoh, using a blowtorch to set fire to yourself. Play. So obviously, you're going to want to be a safe. It's possible when you're doing that, make sure there's nothing flammable around what you're doing, but you're gonna need a firebreak in order to put your pieces on safely. Fire. Your peace is over on it, So another piece of kit, which I consider to be essential, is a blowtorch. It doesn't need to be a big, fancy blowtorch. This is just a little one. It's one of those ones which you fill up with gas canister from bottom. If you've got a creme brulee torture home, you could use that. Um, So I'll put links of where to buy these within the UK or what to go. You're not okay. Not one thing that is essential for this class is some sort of molding material. Say it could be a two part molding material. So what you do is you take a bit of one color and a bit of the other color on she mixed them together, and you're gonna push your piece that you want to make a mold off into it. Um, all put this over the peace, and then it will dry fairly quickly, and he takes five minutes on, leave you with a kind of flexible but firm, um, material, which you can then press yourself play into. So the molding material comes in lots of different colors. Um, I'll put links of where to buy it. I buy these enormous parts of it. This stuff is called also form because I use quite a lot of it, but you won't need nearly as much as this. Um, so don't be alarmed if yours is a different color. You don't have to buy exactly what I've got here. You are, of course, going to need some silver plate. So this they're different brands of silver play. The one that I like. Is this our place? Older. It's It will leave you with 99.9% silver on it could be fired with the torch. There are different types of silver. Um, like this one, which is our place till 9 50 Which means that it's got some copper mixed into it. Which will leave won't leave you with this pure silver, but it will be slightly stronger, but that one needs to be fired in killed. Uh, in the videos, I used this stuff called Vegetable Badge of bombs Basically so very handy. You get dry lips in your workshop, but what what it really does is he put it on your fingers on or you could rub it on Teoh, Whatever. You're the surface you're working on. It will stop your silver clay from sticking to it. You don't have to buy exactly this one. Most people probably let bar lying around. You could use, or you can use olive oil. I've never really liked using olive oil very much. Almost one just a little bit to running. But you can try that, and I find this hot plate. It's very useful. I'm not big into waiting for things on this speeds up processing it. So it's just a cheapie one that I bought on Amazon. It's a mug warmer. It seemed that days, but I put a ceramic tile over the top, turn it on and put my pieces on it. And it means that they just dry a lot faster than if I just left emerged in the open. But it's not essential. We really don't want to spend the money. Then you don't need to get one of these. You can just leave pieces to dry out in the open air or pop them in your airing cupboard. Um, just you just have to make sure that they're completely dry before you move onto the next stage, so there are lots of other little bits and bulbs that you're going to need, so I find a toothbrush handy knitting needle, and I know that these all sound quite random, but it will make sense as you watch videos. So what I've done is I've put together a file which has got a list of all the things I think he might need. So in one of the videos, I used a little metal cutters that you don't need to buy a little metal cutters, just things that I think you might find useful for your creations. So if you go to at the bottom of the video, you will see your project, you click on that, then on you're looking at screen, I think will be down there somewhere. There will be a list of files one of days will have all the tools, materials and, um, Andi Click on that and I will be a listed things that I think he might need on wherever possible, where you could buy 3. Lets go foraging: So socks and I are all set to go off foraging. I'll show you what I've got with me. Sorry. This next bits are gonna be done on my phone, so it may be a bit Gigli. So in my basket got pair scissors, and I'm taking a little bit off the molding material with me. So I put a little bit in a pot each obviously not mixed because that would set set it off a little bit in each part, just in case I see something that I can't or don't want to take a clipping off. I can do a mold of it there and then this game. So I'm just wandering down the lanes, looking in ALS hedgerows, looking for things which aren't too big because obviously the clay is quite expensive. You don't want to use too much of it. And also, if you're firing it with a torch, the silver clover, the torch we don't want your peace. Be too big and thick if you lucky enough to have a killed, and you can get something bigger, but you're probably gonna want to keep in mind your cost of your play. Yeah, I've got a dog with me as well say, if I yanked off in a certain direction. That's why, yes, So just wondering around looking in the hedges s so far. I found some rose hips and some blackberries and these little Berries which were on Virginia Creeper, I think, yes, say it's just make the most of a beautiful day. Have a wander around, see what you can find leaves quite nice veins in the leaf make really nice print and silver clay, but also, like, Have I see some nice tree bark or something that I've got my whether we get got my molding compound with me. So if I want to, I can take hold of that. Well, the fence and nice black graze. Sometimes it is better to pick for the foraging thing. It's better to pick the red ones cause black ones are really squishy. And just there's just a slight risk when you're making the mold that you gonna squish him. But the red ones tend to be harder, so it's worth thinking about things like that. So I should chop that one off, add it to the basket. I just spotted this lovely bit of moss considered liken and nice Nolly tree bark. So I'm gonna get my molding material art. So I've got equal parts of my molding material out my little part and just mix it all together. I'm doing this one handed trying to hold the phone as well. That's the dog whining in the background so it mix it up so that it's all one even color. So you can see at the moment I'm still still not quite mixed night and then choose the bit that you want to do. So I quite like this Cut myself quite like this. Bit here on a spit of bark, say, just going to literally stick it on smooth Dave. I also found this lovely like colored, stick covered stick. Just checking to see this is ready yet, so just give it a nice touch. Put her fingernail into it, and that's not quite ready. If I pull that off a bit, okay, so you can see it's not leaving a nail print in it now, so I think that it's about ready quite a lot of the moss with it, but we can clean that up later. This one's ready to and I think I'm probably gonna have the same saying when we take a lot of like this. Lovely. I can't see very clearly on video. Um, it's picked up the details really well. So back in the studio, let's have a look at what we've got says. But that's my supper. They're not so tight a picture of insider. Uh, often, I don't know what things are. Eso I probably did that Googling just quite like those. I'm not sure how they're going to translate into silver some nice gross heads that I just picked up as I went too long. Um, but easel, I don't know what I can do with that, but I have a bit of a player level with spiking this. It's got texture quite like this Grass head out again. Don't know what it is, but like shape of it on I got here. Nice little brunch covered in, like find some grapes hanging over somebody's rule again. I don't know how they're going to translate into play, but way have leg days. Don't have got um I don't know what these are that Don't they just look fantastic? If you could see clearly from the video that that it's like you're Miami sparklers, like little tiny fairy sparklers. Not a bit of grass, the red blackberries that I pointed out to you, Some slays. Now I love the look of slows. I don't think that those are going to translate into silver very well, because it's the color of the slow on booth kind of the bloom on the skin that gives it its beauty where it's in silver. I think it's just gonna be so cool. But I picked some, anyway, a little bit of Hilarion, the parents. Another think that came from a doctor. Another one of days, some little rose hips, I said about finding things that were fairly small, something you don't want to use too much clay. So I found those nice little rose hips, and they got my small leaves as well. I picked a few of these little seed heads, read Black Breezes, Good, hard one and again it's quite small. Uh, now let's get confused. Between Hawthorne, Rohan, I think these hawthorn Berries more little seedy things, just like shape of awesome. I tend to put a teach out in my basket, just stopped things, getting damaged, but I picked some sticky bears, and they're stuck to the Tito. Another stuck to me thes things. Great fun. Three of your friends back Berries. Yes. We got my two molds that need cleaning up. Um, nice twig. I love the shape of little buds on it. Might be able to do something nice with that rose hips, more blackberries. I think that's about it. So now I will go and get my molding material out and start making some malt. 4. Making Moulds: and then we get to have some fun with our molding material. Say thes are the ones that the molds that I took when I was out there and I cleaned them up a bit just with warm, soapy water and a toothbrush haven't got all of the bits out. But we will have a play with polymer clay later, and that will get any better. So got my two parts of moulding material next to me. Andi, my leaves. And really, this is just about playing and seeing what you can come up with. So I think I'm gonna have a go at it. The's little traps first of all, um, so I got a bit of the white, a bit of green. Yours might be a different color for this molding. Material comes in all sorts of different colors that you can if you want, press that straight into the clay. But because the taste quite expensive. If you don't like what you've made, then you've kind of messed around with a bit of play unnecessarily. So I tend to make molds with this and then do a trial run with polymer clay Seabrook, see what happens. Se I'm just gonna put that that I'm just going Teoh, press this into the I'm gonna leave that one Teoh dry. He takes a couple of minutes. If you want to use a different tired each time, you can do it on a little bit of your Teflon. So I'm just going Teoh, play around with ease. Onda, come back to you when I've got some speed up When I come back to you once, I've got some molds to show you. - Okay , so I think, uh, some of ah molds are ready. Teoh, have a look at, uh which one did I start with? This one Say I showed you in the other video. Press your nail into it and it doesn't leave a dent. So that means that it's dry enough. So just carefully peel out your original and you're going to get bits left in there. That looks quite fun that we interesting to see what that one next. Like, I'm just go around the mall, peeled out, get rid of leftover bits, molds, flexibility should be ableto just bend it. If you do have no toothbrush, I just use that just to get rid of any last bits that are stuck in that Now I've done this quite a few times before, so I have lots of molds that I've made before. Say, this was a bit of old fencing, but it's got lovely, Um, would texture that when I think was Carol Parsley. It's a lot of these were done in the summer. That one might be Caro. That one might be a forget me not, um, valerian. I think this one was lavender and I can see abused this one before It's got a Penn outline . I selected the bit that I wanted to use, but I say that in a minute. Rose Marie. More blackberries from last year. That one waas pansy, I think, um, that one. I have no idea. Daisies, Another Rose hit that one again. No idea. But maybe once I've pressed the polymer clay into it And might may, I think this one was slows. This is what I was saying about not translating into silvery. Well, if you want to Lovely Silver Bull. It would be nice, but I don't think people unnecessarily gonna see what it is. It might get a bit lost and silver bluebells. Um and that was a Moldova walnut that I took half a walnut. So I compress the silver clay into that and then press around. So if you don't want it solid, because I would use a huge moment, clay, that the walnut came out quite nicely. So the moment I've shown you safer for making the fact back to say you press your silver clay into them on Ben, your pendant will have a kind of a Wibberley organic shape back, but sometimes I like to make a two part mould. So with pieces like most sycamore seed, you see it's textured on both sides. I sometimes do the same with leaves this one's and Oakley on gun. I've done it with a corn, um, on a BlackBerry and a black relief. So I've got various pieces that actually is quite nice to have a texture on both sides, So I will quickly show you how Teoh make one of those molds as well. So show you have to dio two part mould off a sycamore, exceed really and in the same way we did the first notes take look with one color, even size blob, your other color make it kind of right wits and length to fit you seed in the same way we did the others, it was press you whatever it is you're molding. In this case, it's a sycamore seed into your Google found. Wait for that dry Wait for a cure. Okay, say that one's dry. Now, when we did the other ones, we took that out. But leave it in this time. Say, uh, well, toothbrush, but badger balm. Just tap it on the top and then rub a bit of bacha ball round the edge of senior molding. You can put a bit on top as well. In this case, the defendant spends what you're molding, and then I just put a bit more on my finger. Make sure you get it all over the surface of this part of the mold, because this is gonna gonna sandwich that in the middle. Um, then take even blobs. If you're molding material and then push it down. Talk the one you had before the best one. Let's make sure that you completely covered whatever it is that you wanted to mold and leave that once dry. So this one's dry enough now. Um, quite often. Forget this step before you kill them apart, make a little line or even two lines from one from the top part to the Boston part. Because once we've taken the sycamore seed out, we can put the clay in and sandwich it back together. But we want to make sure we got it lined up properly so the minds will help with that P. That part actually came apart quite easily. There we have it. Take that out and then you have two part mould which fits together perfectly. So hopefully now you've got some interesting shapes and molds to use and play with. I always like to do a practice run with polymer clay before we get going with clay on because you might not want to use all of the models you made on. It just gives you a chance to see what you're gonna produce in silver before you actually use Silda eso. Let's crack on on. Dumbed have ago with parliament like 5. Practice Run: squishing my m polymer clay around. Um, I just got a little bit softer. I think if you have a new packet, does tend to be a bit softer. I did open any pack about had it sitting around for us, Well turned by the females. Soft just cause it is a bit easier to push into the mold. But this is just to give you an idea, because it's quite hard to tell when you've got something like that, what it's gonna look like in silver play and it's a bit risk just to make it in silver play hope for the best. So this just kind of gives you an idea so literally just push it into the mold that carefully peel it away. Se I was to make something a silver play would look a little bit like that, and then you can get your cutters got into a circle, or you can a Stanley knife or some sort of blade and make a more kind of organic shape around the edge. That one it's got. Obviously, if this was in so you'd be saving you site so that mold produces something like that. Um, I quite like that. Say, I'm gonna put that to one side to use later. Just script cup can get for your next one. Try it soft, but not allow the molds you make we're gonna use. Just pick your favorite ones. So again, push it down into the building material when you're doing And Silver Clay, you're gonna want toe have the back kind of thinness possible Not so thin that it fragile bendy when it's fired. That, um, just really to minimize the usage of your play. And again, I quite like that. I think actually, that was hanging. It's a pendant or something. Honey. Cut around that. We've made a circle. I think that would make quite pretty pendant again. I'm gonna put that 1 to 1 side. Not got the molds that I took while I was out on my walk. See what we've got there. No. Try again. That one. Don't find too exciting. Um, I guess if you had a heart shape cutter, something like that, you could have, um, like a heart or a moss Hart, which might be quite nice, but Or you could use it. It's the background for something else. You could make yourself, like a little little bug or something like that out of silver Play and put it on top. Lots of ideas, but yeah, not that one. Say, I put that in the not Fanara pile. I do tend to keep old molds I make because you never know when you might need a textured background or something like that. You see, I think this one's gonna be quite nice. Let's give it a go and see Yes, I like that one. So I'm just gonna work my way through all my moles on See what I've got. I did say that some of the the molds that I've used in the past we find one Say, I've used this black bream. All this was from last year. I think before, um, I've press my blackberries in, and I've made quite a big mold on then with my polymer clay. I've pressed it in, and I've decided which which bits taken the most detail, which bits made the most interesting, which would make the most interesting piece of jewelry. And then I've drawn a black line around it just so that I know for future reference. If I want Teoh press my clay in that I really only to try and keep it within those black lines. In that way, you don't end up wasting lots of clay or getting lots of little bits in it. So if you've got quite a big, flat mold like that, then it's quite a good idea just with your polymer clay just to explore which area you want to use, that maybe just with a Sharpie go around the outside. If you're still unsure, you can make your little, um, polymer clay mold and you can fire them in the oven. Say you got them forever and you can, you know, have a better look at them on a bit of a think about yes. So I now, hopefully you've got some moves that you're happy with on. Do you think we'll look interesting and silver and we will crack on Andi. Start making some so dependence 6. Wet Clay Stage: so just just a quick note from storing your silver play. So I keep it within the bag it comes in, and then I have a piece of kitchen paper, which I spray with water. So you wanted damp, not wet. Say, if I bring that out, nothing's gonna come out of it. But it is damp. And then within that I have a piece of cling film, which I keep the silver play wrapped up Titan. It does stick to your fingers, so I use the batch of bomb brother that on your fingertips just to stop it sticking two fingers. So this is the play. It's just, like looks just like kind of Potter's clay, that ordinary play. So when you're storing it, But in your playing film, I've got mine. Double Davor. Make sure it's nice and tight. That, and roll it up in your damp kitchen paper and then put back in the bag should last like that for quite a long time. But if you haven't used it for a while, or you know, you're not going to use it for what it's worth, just checking it and sometimes just giving a quick spray of water into a bag like that. So I'm gonna have a go with one of the molds that we've made. I've got mine on a piece of Teflon. Doesn't really need to be but, um, means I can just transfer that over to my hotplate to dry out the clay afterwards. It's a break off a piece of your so the clay. Make sure you just cover that you're not using because you don't want that to dry out. What a busy working on this bit. Now I try. I just give it a good, squishy things. I want to try and avoid having cracks like this in it, because sometimes they can show up in the final piece and it's really irritation. Uh, say just try and get, get yourself a nice sort of even shape and then push it into the mold and want to try and get into a little crevices that if you want to get as much detail as possible, you can take that and put that straight onto a hot plate and leave it to dry in the mold. Um, you won't lose any detail, but I want Teoh. Just check. Sort of. Overall shape of it. So I'm going to try and take this out. Um, you might need a couple attempts at this. Sometimes you end up having to screw it up and start again. It's just very careful. They peel it out of the mold, lay it down. I think, Um, just very carefully. I'm going for something very organic and Wibberley and I actually quite like that. As it is, I could take starting life or sharp pointed to, um, and if I had Squidgy bits coming off around the edge, I could cut those often tidy it up. I'm actually going to leave that as it is, and it's not perfect there, you see, there's, like, a little bit there. There's a little bit on the top of that, but I can take that off when I'm refining it afterwards and that I'm not worried about because, like I say, I'm going for something organic. Say that one is done and I can transfer that over to my hot plate. I just have a title, so let's have a go at another one. Yeah, I've got she say with the mold. It's not essential, but I sometimes get old toothbrush. Dip it into my badge. Obama just touched the surface where that you don't want too much on there. Just rub it into all the little holes and into the design. I don't want to fill your design with the badge. A bomb just literally want enough so that it makes it easy to release Clay. We've got new mold. It's good to do this. So if I was to use that one again, I probably wouldn't put the badge a bomb in it. But just because this one hasn't actually being used yet, Remember to keep putting petrol bomb on your fingers. Cover up that you're not using. Squeeze out any lines. Cracks, That's what. By that that squash that one in piece of underneath. I'm not sure I have enough clay here to do all of this, but I could do some of it. All right, push it down into the mountains. You want to keep in mind that you don't want it to get to thin if it gets too thin when the silver clay is very thin and it's fired, can be a bit bendy is much softer than sterling silver. I just got it around the edge. There were house gonna bits in, just trying to smooth out any cracks or anything you've got in the back because you'll be making your life easier when you come to the next stage, which is when it's dry and we're sending it down, we've got on board. Let's have a go at this one as well. You want to. You can turn it over and press it onto your Teflon surface. I'm not terribly happy. Is that one? Because I didn't have. You can see in the video, but it's got quite a lot of cracks in it. So I'm actually going Teoh do that. We've been handling your play quite a lot. You can just give it a tiny spritz of the water with that, and you can wrap it back up and leave it for a while just for that water to absorb and then come back to it. Start again. It's better, but it's still not quite right. So what? I'm going to Dio because I've played with this clay quite is I'm going to put it back in the tank filled, give a tiny spritz, wrap it back up again, just leave it for a while. Then come back to it. Should go from dogs barking at Welcome back. Have another day at the Berries. I got a few cracks in the surface is there? But other than that, it looks quite good. So I will show you hopes. Don't do that if it'll possible. Well, it did look right. I think it's did OK. I don't do it again. Say those are the three have done. I've done safer. They will be in squashed into the molds. They will produce something like this. And then that's the back. So you can see the back is my favorite word organic on with Billy. But there are other ways to do your moldings, which I will show you in case you want to. So this is the This is when I took I did from Took from offense ages ago. Remember when um Oh, you do something different with that one. So get my piece of Teflon but a batch of bomb rub it on play. This is this is a new piece, so I don't have to squish it around too much on then. I'm going to take sorry. We believe the camera dividers. Danny the side. You might get something a little bit sick. Use my road for a while, so just make sure dust on it. Little batch of bomb around it. I just roll that out the spaces. Make sure that your piece of play is an even thickness. And I got a little heart shaped cutter out of right stash of cutters. Just make sure that's clean. And I don't put all the bits that are coming off it into my nice clean today. Just check that that does. Actually, if it does, then I can take my textured. Um, I would textured mold and just press it trying to even make Didn't have one end thicker than the other. It doesn't matter. Precedent. You see, it leaves the texture of the wood in the clay. And then I get my cutter and I just Robert bitch of the badge. A bomb around. Yeah, outside. And you can make a stamp before you pick your Cut her up. Take off the excess. Don't waste that back in with the rest. Cover it. Then you could take that often. They got little wooden heart. So I show you how Teoh, push the play into your two part mould. But I'm not going to show you with the one I've made in the video. I'm gonna show you with a different one that I have. I like to make it into a kind of very, very, very big shape of the mold that it's gonna go in, push it and like that, take you top part, line up your black marks on squash. Well, who's out the side? Take that. Top it off on tidy up around the edges Because we can save this solo, play another project and then repeat the squishing process. Make sure your lines lined up. Squash it down. Just be careful, not toe. Jiggle the top one too much. Otherwise, you're gonna end up creating lots of work yourself in the next stage. And again, just carefully take off much of the excesses you can. I mean, we can take some of the excess off from me once it's dry, and we're standing it that this clay could be reused for something else while it's still wet. And then I leave that in the bottom half of the mold, put it with my other pieces to dry. So I've decided against Littlewood Heart I've done, but I thought I might have a go with, um My Rose Marie, Matt said. In the same principle is when I did the wooden heart because I've seen handling that play quite a bit. I'm just going to give it a little spritz. Wrap it back up that one away because I think we're done with the wet clay stage. Sure, it's secure at night. Let's take that off you got. I mean, I think that looks much nicer than the wooden one. And maybe when I draw my whole I can have it hanging inside something like that. So I have that, too other ones to try. So this is just my mug warmer, which bought on Amazon, Um, can leave them to dry out in the open air, but it just takes a bit longer, so I would make him on my on a tile on the mug warmer until they're completely dry, and then we'll stop refining them 7. The Dry Clay Stage: So these Havel being sitting on my hotplate for a couple of hours on Now it's time Teoh refined them. Sound backs tidy up any bits that we think need tidying up. I want to try and save in a fuel play little bits of dust because you can recycle, uh, the powdered place. This is my clay pot. You can see it's just full of paradise. Eso What I will do is send these down tied yet the edges and then once I've got some dust in there, just tough it down. Important to the pop like that. Save all your extra bits. Uh, right. So you're going to meet your sanding pads. So you probably bought them in a big sheet, cut out a square. I tend to mark the back, so I know which one's which cause after you've used them a few times, it's quite hard to toe which one's which. So I have the coarsest one. I marked with a red pen mark from however you like, just long as you understand the way you mark them, courses run amok with red. Then the next one middle one. I marked with a blue and then the finest, smoothest one trees last remark with Green so I can see easily which one's which from Pick him up. I say, Start out with your courses sending pad and stop rubbing back for the truth or any bits that you think need refining. I'll just give a quick overview of each of the pieces I got here to give you an idea, and I'll just carry on and do the rest of them. So I once I've sounded the back of this moment, has got the flat back. You tend to get a sharp edge, and I don't really like sharp edges, so I just go around and take any sharp edges or get rid of any fingerprints. Your red one. I was going to take the biggest marks off, but that will leave very fine scratches in your silver that will be finer scratches. And then that will leave the finer scratches, which are hardly visible. You might find, um, a scalpel blade useful. Let me have a neck se this Berry did talk about how there was this bit down the side. You have to be slightly careful with your play because it is quite fragile at this stage, and if you break this, that is a way of fixing it. But it's it's a done the whole lesson, really to show it, Andi, just avoid it if you can, so you can use a scalpel blade. Just very carefully. Scratch away any extra bits that you've got that you don't want. I like to have an old paint brushed a hand just so I can brush the dust off and see what I'm doing. If you get a big buildup of dust, it just means that you can't really see very clearly. I'm just gonna take my most office. It's a fact you can use no files. They're very useful. Take a nail file in there and just tidy that up a bit. That that and then he couldn't get yours. Read pad, squeeze it in standing. If I've got a nice rounded shape like these Berries, it's quite nice to make sure that they're nice and shiny. So I probably worked my way through all the sanding pads with those, and but with a more detailed things like this, I'm not going to even attempt to get the red standing in there with this one, probably D Some sounding on the highest points. The berry said that when it's finished there nice and shiny, and I'll do some tidying up on the back with sanding pads. Uh, this one has got these little cracks in. I want to say how you can fix those so you could send it down. I don't have. You can see clearly, but see these cracks in here that's gonna spoil the overall finish. These nice, juicy Berries give a sand with read pad. Sometimes you can get rid of Marx and cracks just by doing this and then working away through the different grapes of sending pad. Always go over with the brush so you can see what they have actually got rid of it. Now that hasn't got rid of that. So what I'm going to do is to get my clay back out. So I put my play. Andi. I also got a little pot. She's got some water in it. What do you It's just wet the area around any cracks that I want to Phil and then take. I've got this spatula, which is a really useful tool so we can find something like that. But feel free Teoh, Improvise with whatever you've got around the house to take a tiny bit of your play and then just press it into the cracks. The reason we wet it. It's so that this new play will bond to the original play. Don't worry about getting it to smooth, obviously smooth. Better because you get a make less work for yourself. You can lick your finger. I just smooth and squash it down like that. What will have to do is to let this dry again on the, um, hot plate or out in the open air on Sand it down again later on, hopefully would have managed to have filled the cracks. I was just looking. Get rid of the biggest lumps of it. I'm gonna put that back on the hotplate while I carry on this. So the sycamore siege that we did in the double mold has come out quite well. But because it's in a two part mold, we have got a line all the way around. This is where a scalpel blade is quite useful just very carefully around passing off any excess. I'm not, and you can do as much or as little of this issue like it depends what sort of thing you're looking for. Like this one. A seed head. It's got quite a lot of texture in it, but I quite like my signal seeds tohave a lovely, smooth, shiny bit here and then to have the texture in this bit. So what I will do is probably take quite a lot of that textured, uh, it off. And then I will wait over this'd area. My standing had taking away that texture. Your your red pad will take away texture. So I'm not going to use the red pad at all on this area because I want to keep all the little details. But I might. When I months I've tidied up the edges. I might just go over it with the green and just slightly polished high points. So I'm just gonna went my way through all of the's on speeded up because it's a bit boring for you to watch, and I'll show you once I've got, um, or ascended. - Okay , so that's those one sanded and taken this one back off the hot plate. This is the one. I filled the cracks and on high points on this areas were rife with extra play. Sleeping and down use. The corners of your sounding had just to get into looks. And cronies they don't have to stand every little bit just sounding the bits that I'd like to be shining once it's fired because these ones would be impressed into the mold backs. All kind of wobbly on sanding pads of perfect way. Tried to do that with nail file. You're just gonna take off the high points and gonna take away too much way Have it. Take paintbrush, get rid of any dusty bits, front and back. Sometimes when you go over the paintbrush might show up a little crack that he hadn't noticed. If you still go any cracks or anything, you I've still got a tiny bit there. But I don't have this problem. You can repeat the process. So wet the area and then with a spatula or something like that. Maybe, just even like a little piece of paper. You might be able to just squidgy and aggressive clay finger. Smooth it over, dry it out and sound it again. Andi, with ALS, this lovely silver dust gather it all together. Save it in your foot. I think we're ready to start thinking about how would like these to hang to fire them. So take a look at each piece to think about where you would like. It's which point you'd like it to hang from. So with my sycamore seed already know what I'm going to do with that? Because I make them like this. And I sold her on very small, um, jump ring there. And then I put a bigger jumping to hang it on the chain. So what a moment to think about the ones Web, which we can drill a hole and say the little Rose Marie heart. Um, my kid put holding their but to me that it looks so it's just gonna go through the middle of the decoration. That seems like a bit of a shame. So I think it might look quite nice, that sort of hanging on its side of it Say, I'm thinking I might drill hole. Yeah. So I just take a pencil mark where I want the whole bay. Um, this one not quite decide on that one. This one I'm thinking, put a hole and then have the Berries hanging downwards talking that this one, I think, would be quite nice of it hangs. So it's coming off this bit of this little stem here. So what I may do is what I do with some of my other pieces, like this BlackBerry. This was made with a two part mould on. Then I sent. I sold it this bit on the jumping on their own to stalk, and then that's been sent off to be cast that could be reproduced easily, but I think I will probably sold her a jump a ring on there. So it's a bit like that chain will just go directly through that, and I'm kind of tempted to do the same on that one. I think so. Those three needs soldering. These two need drilling, so I will show you how to drill holes, take a drill bit and literally over your pencil. Mark that and then just twist. Press down gently. Not too hard, because you don't want to crack silver clay. Just let the drill do the work, twisting it fingers keep twisting. Don't push it, eventually feel it. Come through the other side, and then we have it when little hole and I'd like to just over the area with green, sending pad and again with the paintbrush just to make sure no dusty bets on there. Make sure we have a picture of any dust from our his paper. It's that one. It's ready for firing. We're going to do the same, this one, because these ones are going to be sold it. I can fire those now sold in my pieces on later. So it's completely up to you if you want to have a go. It soldering does require a few more tools, which obviously will be listed. But the's ones you don't need any soldering skills for. You want to just drill a hole in it like this. One could drill holding it. They're having a bit of angle. Or you could just drill a hole through their same on that this one. You could have it hanging that way up. Drill a hole through there. There's lots of options. Um, it just depends what you find aesthetically pleasing. Let's move on to some firing 8. Firing & Jump Rings: when you are firing, your piece is obviously want to do it in a safe area. I've got this little box, which is my soldering station, which is made of some fireproof material. I can't remember what it's called. Got my fire Brick. Um and I got some water. I got my little torch on a timer, which is my time. Say, you're gonna want to set two minutes on your time I come in. I have to do that. You gave Get that ready. Put that to one side. So it's easy for you to press when you need to take kill first piece that you're gonna fire . May 25. Brick. This next bit easier to done that dumb. Easier to do when in an area that's not too bright because you're gonna want to watch the color of your silver place. So I'm gonna turn my light out. So I hope you can still see about your torch and then gently move the flame evenly over the whole piece. You don't want to just heat one area, so it'll catch fire, which is always alarming. Then it will go yucky and brown. Then I start to get white. Then it should start to glow orange. You can see that in the it's just started going. So once you've got a nice orange glow, press your two minute timer. You want to try and hold it out back color for two minutes. Keep the torch moving over it. Otherwise you'll melt it. Don't be alarmed of it. Kind of warps a little bit. Kind of bends up, it will flatten itself back down again. So what we're doing now is with burning off the organic binder. Andi, all those lovely little particles of silver and moving places together. So you do get a little bit of shrinkage. Get about 10% shrinkage with this particular play. No, the gate. That's my time. Now you can either leave that there to dry. Obviously, don't touch it or you can quench it in water. Just leave my tolls. Fine. Well, you can get a pair of tongues of something similar. Get up. Drop it in the water than that. We'll call it How pounds going in. No, you hear that? That's no silver. So I put that down on some kitchen roll to dry to one side on five. The next one. So I show you the next one as well, and then I'll just crack on and go through the rest of them, so time or up. Two minutes, Actually. Lights, turn all the lights off now. So hit. That's not too darks. Move your flame even May over the peace. Let it catch fire. Find a burning off. It's meant to do that. Brown yucky stage it is White should start to glow once you got that nice orange glow. Press your timer. Keep going for two minutes. Okay? Talk shop lights back on. Crunch it. Never get another piece of silver. Doesn't look silver yet, but it will by the charming finished. So I put that down to one side to dry, and I will just work my way through the other bits. Um, show you the next step once they're all fired. And just one thing, the bits that I fired already have all got flat back so I can just lie them flat. This one, Uh, because it goes in here on in here, we're just gonna I've got lots of holes and groups and things in my firing block. So if you've got new on, you could cut a little hole out. Just find something to support your PC. That's it's quite nicely in there. It just means is not going to sink down when I fire it. It's That should keep its shape reasonably well. Okay, so now we've got a lot Peace is fired. Hear that? It's actually turned to metal. Now, um, and then this is my favorite bit of the whole process. This is where we turn this white thing that looks like a bit of ceramic into silver to take your cross bristle, brush on surfaces, scrub, always graves. You see, all of a sudden, let's turn to silver. Do you find this bit magic? So go over them all like this from time back. - So once you've got them all to the silver stage, then you're gonna need to work your way through with the ascending pads again, starting with the coarsest than the middle one and then the finest one. If you've got lots of tiny little detail like the detail on the sycamore seed, I wouldn't go over that with the red pad, but go over anything I want shiny with the red pad. Um, I would give a the small detail like that with the blue pad, and then he can go over it with the green pad. That's fine. But if you go over it with the red pad, you might start to lose some of your lovely detail. So I'm going to work my way through each pendant. Did each of sanding pads just make them a shiny smooth as possible? So there we have it being through A with the different grades of sounding pads. Um, we now have a dependence, but we need something to hang them from. If you don't want to do soldering, we don't want to buy the extra kitsch it. Then watch this class. And then you might want to skip the soldering class, move straight onto um, adding the pattern er se you're not soldering. Take a jump rings and you're gonna need your too little pair suppliers. You can see this in the video, but Poggio jump ring between your two pliers, just gently moved the end's apart like that and then take a pendant. Oh, drop it because it's bit fiddly. Moving further apart, spread it through. Then again, take her jumping between your two pliers and moved them so that almost back together. But not quite. Because what you want to do then, is to squeeze the end to the just go past each other, put that there, that one's gone past that one, and then you're going to use the tension of the metal. Hold it together. So you just gently pull them apart, slide, um, next to each other. And there we have it. Now you can solder that jump ring, and I will show that in the soldering class, which just means that if you're wearing it and it gets pulled on, it's not gonna fall off. But these are quite sturdy jump rings or the ones I've recommended. You get quite sturdy jumping, so it shouldn't go anywhere. Um, and that's ready to be, well, nearly ready to be hung on a chain will put some Russia. You have to put some pattern on it so that we can pick out all the details. Um, so that's that one. I've only got two, which I'm putting jump brings on. So I'll show you one more time between the two pliers. Moved him apart, thread it through the hole. 10 push and say that nearly back together, squeeze the ends, post each other and then whom apart slide one in front of the other. So now I will get out my soldering kit, and I show you what I'm going to do to these other ones. 9. Soldering (Optional): So I start off showing you how to solder the jump rings in case you want to. I have this thing which is called 1/3 hand. You can hold your pendant, hold the jump bring and that that some of the heat from your torch is going to be sucked into the tongs. Eso we'll give this a go? First of all, eso, I have some easy solder paste. Um, get easy. Medium and hard solder easy will melt at the lowest temperature, so squeeze a little bit if you'll paste onto where the joiners have joined at the top and you need a tiny bit, you have too much. It's gonna take too long. Melt on you might end up melting, you jump for it and then with my torch, which I probably need a bit more. Guess it with my torch. I'm gonna heat all around the ring. Some of the heat is going to get sucked into dependent. Some of the heat's gonna get sucked into the tongue so I may need heat tongs a little bit as well, but we'll see how it goes. Just working my way over on the jump offering. What's the key to the whole jump bring you can Then heat solder on top but you keep. Then move it back again onto the jump crane that cools. I mean, you sold, went play. There we go. Some that's no joined. I can crunch it in my off the water. Remember to quench your tongues as well. They don't bony fingers that is now joined. And that needs to be pickled, but I'll show you pickling in a second. So now we've got this pendant. Now this one is a bit bigger. So I thought I'd show you another way of soldering it just because obviously yours are going to your pendants. We're gonna be difference shapes and sizes to mine I did solder this once already, but my memory card was told that it wasn't recording. So here we go again. So what I do instead of using the tongs this time you did lay it down on my soldering Breck , Just push the jumping in a little bit. So it's sort of held the and then I want to try and move your pendant so that little of the metal is touching your jumping as possible. We want to try and avoid the heat going into dependent. Um, Andi, Also make sure that you're join is well away from the whole independent because of you solder with your soldier here. You obviously going to attach? You're jumping to your pendant So I got the space and my jump ring They're enjoying their on I'm going to squeeze a little bit of my solder paste. I'm just gonna use my weight so you can use a toothpick you don't soldering pick. And the thing that kind of pencil on a thing that it just means you can get that on that and then I'm gonna heat round and round and round jump bring But this might get quite quickly. Did last time I did it Famous smell sweat round, round I think I've got my pendant It's touching that. Say no with my fingers Just gonna move that fraction that way again He dependent a little bit. Just help it along Don't hold it in one place They heat low, melt it course The second time I did it doesn't really is easiest. Maybe that just stop. Bit of solder done. Sorry. Opening camera. Pick it up with tongues and Quincy. It just you can check that It sold it just by trying to wiggle the to bits part. Now you can see where that's gone Black. That's where the copper in the silver has raised to surface. So this is why we need to put this on and anything else. We sold her into a pickle solution. But I will show you that in a minute. In the meantime, I'll show you what I'm going to do with the other pendants with my sycamore seed. I want to solder very small, jump a ring onto there, um, to get the best joint possible, I need to have two areas that will lie flat against each other. So what I'm going to do is take my file, just file a small area flat where I want the jumping today. Have you concede that on camera? And then I'm gonna sold on my jump ring on its own. First of all, on I'm going to use my heart paste for this because this is gonna be sold it twice. Yeah, I'm not expecting you to do this, but I did think you might find it interesting just to see what I'm doing from the maps. Dumb because it didn't have any heat sink goes really quickly. My tomes crunch it. Now I'm gonna find a little area on this flat, so I'm gonna I want that to go 12 there. So I'm gonna file where the solder joint is. It's a little bit fiddly, and you might not be able to see that clearly on the film, But she is easier if I hold it in little pliers. Hold in that. It's a little bit fiddly to line these up. Say, this is where your soldier and not be quite useless. I'm gonna push it into my soldering Look, I want make sure you haven't got any bits of soldering block in between you join. I put my jumping down. He's my soldering pic. Just toe. Use a toothpick for this as well. Just line up close to that. Say that join should have to flat better silver sitting against a flat with a silver. Then I'm going to use my two medium silver paste. Just put Chinese. But she says one commercial achievement. My soldering paste in there. It would be careful when you do this not moves to bits apart to make sure that they're still touching that that is pushed up flush against that. Nothing in need to heat the whole sycamore seed on the ring because the heat, it's gonna get sucked into the sick mole seed on the whole thing needs to be the same temperature before the soldier will flow. Enjoying them. Keep it moving around. Behold in one place on your Sylvia. Just end up melting it. I know from experience that sold it. Crude shipped. Now we have the ring soldered onto their and then what I could do. Let's take another jump ring. But it three that one. Same way you did jump rings earlier and then I consoled of that. But I'm not actually going to solder this one right now because I'm going to send this off to be cost, and I don't want the jumping on it. What? I did So for these last two, what I want to do is to have a jump, a ring that sits like that, so it's not gonna move around. It's gonna actually be soldered onto there. So I've got my jump ring and I closed it up, made sure that the etches adjoining. I'm gonna sold to that on its own with my heart solder on. Then I'm going to file and area flat on the dependent sitting on. So I'm gonna file area flat. Unless the same way I did with the last last piece. Face that down on the squish it down. You need to, and then I'm gonna slide that one down. Join those two. They're touching. Starting today, sighs seldom always moved towards the heat. So you think it's only gone on one side? Bring your heat over to the other side and it will suck the sold through, fingers crossed. Crunch it on. Just give it a quick test. Yeah, that's all soldered on. So now I can just put a chain directly through that one needs pickling, and then I'm gonna do the same thing with this one. Same thing. Put loop on that top. I actually think with this one, I would like that jump ring to sit down in a groove a bit. So I've got around needle file. I'm just going to file that have agrees. That's jumping to sit in just so it's got a larger surface area for the I'm told onto like that. - Have it? It's a lot of these are ready to go into the pickle. So this is my pickle part, which is just a slow cooker. So in there, I've got water on my pickle in solution. So if you have decided, you are going to do soldering. Um, And you going to pickle in? Just follow the directions on your picture in packet. Um, so I'm gonna check those in that leave that to heat up, go walk the dog. And by the time I come back, hopefully all that fire scale would have disappeared, and they'll be ready for one last polish. Andi. Um, putting passionate. 10. Finishing & Patina: So what I'm doing today is just go over the more quickly with the green sanding pad. Uh, cause tickle. They just lost a little bit of that silver shine. Just go around the jump ring and make sure that this night five scale left on that. If you haven't sold them, you might need to do this. Step e got my hotplate turned on we're going to do is just my each pendant down on the hotplate to warm up. Ready, putting pattern or patina. I'm never sure which way? Say Sure, somebody can correct comments with independent. Okay, not going to do that one, because I've got one of those already done. So that's what it would look like with the liver of self on it. So a pendants, we're going to get lots of the dark cotta into the deep parts and then polish the top parts Give us a nice contrast. So they were warming up. So I'm gonna take a little pot. Andi, My oxidizing solution. You just need a tiny better the oxidizing solution. And I warn you, this absolutely stinks. It smells like rotting eggs. And I've boiled the kettle. I try not to steam up the camera. So I'm just gonna do this off camera and just pour boiling water into that. This is where it gets really smelly. A surprise visitor to the Harris water doing this, they may look at you strangely. I wonder if you had beans for lunch, its independence A warm dip, your brush in the oxidizing solution and then just paint it onto your silver pendant. Little react with the silver 10 she on. Um, pure fine silver like this. You get some really beautiful colors, blues and oranges. I'm just making sure it goes in total. The deep parts this pendant was requires cautious. The other one. It will get that if you can avoid getting the never this self on your jump a ring that just because they're a bit of a pain to clean up afterwards can do. It was just a bit fiddly. Make life easier now, I think cause I've sold it, the jump rings onto these two. I'm gonna have to give him another brush with my wire brush just to make the pattern is stick. Okay. So being over them with my flat brush and just very quickly went over them again with the Siris of sanding pads in this try again. That's better. Yeah, with this, but I think it's very nice stuff, so I tend to leave it somewhere out of sight of its not going to get used and just let it evaporate. Um, rather than pouring it down the sink, didn't you can pour it down the sink, But I think when in doubt don't. So I'm gonna take these off, give them a quick wash with some warm, soapy water, and then we'll shine them up. It's not gonna take out, bro. Say Silver polish, whatever. You've got running a bit low on it. Good enough for this. Andi, I don't like to start on the back because I like to leave the best from bit to last. Just give it back polish. Well, I never The more time you spend with your sanding pads and polishing and things like this that obviously the shiny er it's going to be, um, it's entirely up to you. How much or how little you want to do. Sometimes a bit of the never sell for creeps around onto the back or the edges, so I'd like to make sure I got that off. I can't get rid off. And then on the front, exactly the same. You see, it's taking it off that high points, leaving it in all the recesses, and it just gets you better contrast with your pattern that you've created. You don't have to do this stage if you like things Well, shiny in silvery. Um, you could miss out live for himself. Pattern of patina all together. I like to see that definition. Let's sit down that take duster, get much the juice from the Polish office. You can chooser clean a bit of your duster or another duster can't be the same again. Another could rub just to make sure you've really got it all off. Let me have it. So I put that down there and I'm just skin chip because I got lots of the polish juice of my fingers. Get rid of that and then you can take your missing needle. And again this bits optional. But I like to just take knitting needle. Holding it like that just burnished the edges of dependent. It just gives you a nice, shiny edge. Finishes off beautifully. Just be careful Wouldn't Don't do this on the flat areas, cause you end up with lots of what looks like scratch marks and that it works on an edge like this. It doesn't work so well on that big flat areas because I've still got a bit on my fingers. I'm just gonna one more polish with this. No, that's done. That's ready to put on a chain on where? So I'm just gonna work my way through the others. Show you what I've got when I'm finished, and then we have it. I've got 125 pendants. Although that one I didn't really make in the video. That one. I did, but I finished it. Um, Can't wait to see what you guys come up with. 11. Conclusion: So your class project, I'd love you to share what you've made. So show me face graph either of you wearing it or peace on its own. If you've had any problems during the class where there's anything that was particularly clear or any way that you think I could improve it, then please let me know what CASS is to be as easy to follow us possible. But mainly I hope you've enjoyed it and had fun. If there's anything you particularly like to know about, so play or any techniques that you'd like to learn things by all means get in touch with may make a suggestion for a class on. If you'd like to be kept informed about other palaces that I do, then you click the follow button. So until next time, thanks for taking part and I will see you soon.