Bronze Clay
Bronze clay hit the scene at the 2008 PMC conference. This first version of Bronze clay was developed by Bill Struve of Metal Adventures, Inc. (clay is not available on their site). The trademarked name is: BRONZclay. Per Rio Grande, BRONZclay is 11% tin and the other 89% is copper, water and a “non-toxic” binder (as we don’t know what it is, it’s hard to tell). BRONZclay is available at Rio Grande, Metal Clay Supply, Cool Tools, Whole Lotta Whimsey, New Mexico Clay, among others. Celie Fago has a great story to tell about her first encounters with BRONZclay here.
Hadar Jacobson has also developed a Bronze Clay in powdered form available at her Textures store. She has also written a book on using Silver and Bronze clays called:
Silver and Bronze Clay: Movement and Mechanisms.
Bronze clay is not Silver clay! Silver clay tools and work surfaces must be kept separate from the tools and surfaces that you use with Bronze clay. The dust from either material will contaminate the other resulting in some pretty ugly messes and unanticipated results. Like silver clay, you need to coat your hands and tools with some sort of resist (the resist keeps the clay from sticking to things it shouldn’t stick to). Never use a petroleum based product like vaseline. Olive Oil is a safe bet. Mardel Rein mentions that she uses lavender oil in her distilled water. The water is used to rehydrate the clay, make slip and to moisten it before sending it to its little sponge bed in the refrigerator while (according to Mardel) the lavender oil slows the oxidation of copper
Check out the great information on using BRONZclay from Cool Tools, written by Mardel Rein. Rio Grande also has some really good information on working with this new clay. Click here for that page. Art Jewelry Magazine also has much knowledge to share on its blog for February 2009.
Bronzclay videos to watch are from: Cool Tools and Tonya Davidson’s video from Whole Lotta Whimsey. Hadar Jacobson has a video on how to process her clay.
Copper Clay
CopprClay is available where ever BronzClay is sold. Hadar Jacobson has also developed a powdered form of Copper Clay see her link above.