Gold Clay Experiments

Hi Everyone
Well, some progress was made yesterday. I did mix some gold clay as planned. I also managed to produce a sort of version of the metal earrings I shared yesterday. I have more work to do on the initial structure and I'd like to try and find a way of improving the design and adding some findings. The clay has hardened so I will drill some holes. I think, I will add some more wax paint to give more of a shine.




The next few photos show the initial mixed gold clay. The first picture shows gold flakes mixed with plain white Fimo. It's a subtle effect. When the clay is turned into beads, the result is quite good and I do like it. Disappointing, the picture is not showing just how good it is.


The next photo is white clay mixed with gold metalic wax paint. The paint mixes well and gives more of a glow than a deep gold colour. The metallic elements of the paint are peppered all over the tile and dry very quickly into a light dusting powder. This powder does keep mixing into the raw clay and results in a varied way, concentrated in areas. I quite like the effect and again, the beads are pretty and subtle.


Both methods are limited in terms of gold impact, however, I do like the effect overall. Here are a few images of the beads I produced.



The very shiney beads in this photo were gilded and then baked. The second beads (in the same photo) had the wax metallic paint added onto the surface of the raw clay and then baked.


I shaped a range of small, shapes and textured some of them. I also added more paint and gilded some parts.














Gilding direct is my favourite application. I may try more gilding on some of these beads before I decide on how I will use them for specific items of jewellery. My next dilema is what metal to use for findings. I like to use silver but I'm not sure it will work in all cases. I don't have a problem with mixing gold and silver as a rule but I think the right metal needs to be identified for a particular item. I need to work on a few options and experiment.

Thanks for reading.

Bye for today.