I've just ordered a snazzy new precious metal clay product called Bronzclay. Non-jewellery types might not know what precious metal clay (PMC) is, well...it's tiny weeny itsy bitsy particles of metal suspended in an organic binder. You sculpt it, like clay, then cook it in the kiln so the binder burns away and you're left with solid metal. It's amazing! I've done quite a bit with silver PMC but bronze is a whole other ball game. Firstly it takes a lot longer to, erm, cook. Silver takes 15 minutes in my kiln, I just bung it in...wait...and that's it. Easy peasy. For the bronzclay I have to cook it for about 8 hours in a stainless steel container, buried in "activated carbon". Crikey.
Still, it will be fun to play about with. I've recently developed a passion for roman and other ancient, archeology inspired jewellery (I've been watching a lot of Time Team lately) so hope to make some pieces which look like they're come straight out of a hole in the ground, so to speak.
On a completely unrelated note...this is a photo I took of a wild Macaque monkey I saw in Morocco earlier in the year. Mmmmmonkey.
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