Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Fancy Free's New Medium

PRECIOUS METAL CLAY

Precious Metal Clay (PMC) is an exciting material developed and patented in the 1990s by Mitsubishi Materials of Japan.


(click on photo to enlarge)


In the medium I work with (PMC3), microscopic particles of pure silver (salvaged from film negatives) are mixed with an organic binder to create a material that has the working properties of clay.

Using myriad tools, objects are given shape, texture, and character. After drying, the objects are heated to high temperatures, where the organic binder burns away and the silver particles fuse together to create a precious metal object - .999 percent pure silver.

Some pieces are treated to genuine gemstones and/or 22k gold bonded to the piece using an ancient Korean method called Keum Boo (kum-boo), which translated means "attached gold".

No comments: