Cool Tools Blog

New Video – Make a BRONZclay Pendant

Artists have been making bronze jewelry for thousands of years. With the introduction of bronze clay, modern jewelry artists have a wonderful medium which is inexpensive in comparison to silver and gold clays, allowing the artist to be more generous and experimental with their designs and creativity. In this video, I create a rustic bronze clay pendant  If you are new to metal clay or bronze clay, you will love this project.

Bronze pendant with texture tile
This is the texture I used for this piece.
Bronze Pendant
My first bronze pendant.

I haven’t made many pieces out of bronze clay as my first love is silver clay.  I’ve seen so many beautiful bronze pieces in magazines, at trade shows and on line that I thought it was high time I jumped in to see if I could improve my techniques, gain a better understanding of the firing schedules, work with  patina gel and understand the shrinkage rate. Above are  photos of my first piece.  I was surprised at how easy it was.  I looked in magazines for inspiration.

I then decided it was time to create the video and show all of the steps it took to make this piece. Click on the video screenshot below to watch the video or order the kit we created that includes 30 grams of BRONZclay to get you started.

Bronze clay video screen shot

 Here are a few other photos that I took when I created this project.

Here are the stages of this pendant.  The first two are the pendant and the bail.  The bail was placed over a straw to dry.  The third is the pendant ready for firing and the last photo is the final piece that I antiqued by using Patina Gel and then polished with polishing paper.
Stages of this pendant. The first two are the clay pendant and a smaller piece for the bail which was placed over a straw to dry. The third is the pendant ready for firing and the last photo is the final piece that I antiqued by using Patina Gel and then polished with polishing paper.
Here is the pendant directly after firing.  It is sitting on the texture tile (Body Wave).
Pendant directly after firing. It is sitting on the texture tile (Body Wave).
Bronze pendant with text and temp unfired
This photo shows the template I used.

If you would like to order the texture or the template separately, click on the product codes below:

Texture Tile – TTL-414

Jewelry Shape Template – TMP-211

I will continue my bronze clay projects and show you my progress.

 

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