Goldie bronze tutorial – Bronze tassel necklace
Tutor Anna Campbell has been testing out and reviewing products for Metal Clay Ltd including Goldie Bronze one of the Goldie clays that is now available through Metal Clay in the UK. Anna wrote this free beginners tutorial to help get you started.
In this project you will learn how to roll your clay to an even consistency, how to use a stencil to cut out your design and how to add embellishments after firing. It’s the perfect first project for a beader who wants to try out bronze clay.
Please note, Goldie Bronze needs to be kiln fired. If you don’t have a kiln you can follow these same steps to make a pendant in Art Clay silver clay and torch fire your piece instead.
Also, ensure you clean your tools thoroughly when making pieces with different types of metal clay to avoid cross contamination.
Tools and materials
Goldie bronze mid (Approximately 10g, mixed and ready to use. See the video tutorial for instructions)
Playing cards
Mat
Deep texture
Olive oil or badger balm
Quik art stylus or needle tool
Quik art clay saving stencil 55180
Cocktail stick
2 x flat pliers e.g. snipe nosed and flat nosed
Kiln
Heat proof gloves
Barrel polisher or brass brush and 3M polishing papers
2 x black aluminium jump rings, 0.81mm (or other jump rings)
1 x black tassel (mine came from a strand of gemstones I had already purchased. You can also buy tassels at upholsterers or haberdashers)
Rubber necklace or chain
Goldie Bronze comes in powder form, you just need to add water. Mix up your clay as per the instructions, see the video for extra guidance
Choose a deep texture as these work best with bronze clay. Lightly oil your texture (with olive oil or badger balm) to ensure the clay doesn’t stick.
With metal clay we use playing cards or spacer slats to roll out our clay to an even thickness. Put eight playing cards each side of the texture, ensuring they overlap the texture. Put the clay in the middle and roll it out, ensuring the roller is touching the playing cards on both sides
Take the clay off the texture and put it on a mat, lay your stencil on top, press it down firmly to ensure it doesn’t slip around. Cut the shapes out with your stylus. Ensure your stylus needle is vertical and touching the sides of the stencil. Do this slowly and regularly remove your stylus and clean it of any residue clay
Note – I used the smallest stencil shape to complete this piece
Leave the clay aside on a flat surface to dry completely
File the edges with a sanding pad to neaten them
It can be difficult to get the sanding pad into the small holes so use a cocktail stick. You can also wrap a small piece of sandpaper around your cocktail stick if you need additional friction to file inside any holes
Pour 1cm of coconut carbon into your stainless steel pan. Place your piece/s on top of the carbon. If you have made more than one piece make sure you leave at least 1cm gap in between each piece
Fire in your kiln on a full ramp up to 350 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes
Safely remove the stainless steel pan from the kiln – either use heat proof gloves or wait for the kiln to cool completely. Leave the pieces in the pan (they are fragile at this stage as the binder in the clay has burned away). Cover the pieces over with at least 1cm of coconut carbon and fire on a full ramp To 820 degree centigrade for 40 minutes. Wait until the kiln is cool before removing the pieces
I used a barrel polisher to polish the bronze. You can also polish by hand using a brass brush and soapy water to start with then use the 3M polishing papers to rub the piece.
Use your pliers to open a jump ring and add the tassel to the piece, closing the jump ring. Also add the rubber necklace with a jump ring
We hope you enjoy making this project! Have a go and let us know how you get on by sharing pictures on our Twitter and Facebook pages.
Author: Anna Campbell
