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Work up designs. Taking into consideration that it will shrink 2 times in the process. Once in drying and again when firing it in a kiln. Your design is NOT set in stone so along the way if you want to change part of your design, go for it. Example, in designing this piece I wanted flowing movement with the mane, but I soon realized that zebras do not have flowing mains so that was changed in the construction of the pendent.
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A variety of tools are used in the construction of a piece of PMC Jewelry. Tweezers, needle files, dental tools, PMC syringe, acrylic roller, frames of various thicknesses to roll the clay out to a consistent thickness, hard rubber block, spray release solution, core cork clay, emery board, sponge, x-acto knife, small brushes, burnisher, etc.
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In construction one learns many NEW techniques from situations that come up in its development. Every piece of jewelry I have made, I have discovered new challenges that I needed to overcome. In this piece I wanted the zebras to have dimension so I made a relief head of a horse to place the PMC on. I used "Core Cork Clay". It worked fine until I place the clay on it and let it dry. I couldn't remove it from the cork clay. I tried Release solution on the cork clay and that didn't work. I ended up using plastic wrap over the cork clay, which solved the problem.
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How to put the strips on the zebra? I started with embossing them with a sharp tool. I didn't like the results. I then decided to cut each stripe out individually. After doing 3 of the strips that way I decided to try using the PMC syringe. That solved the problem for me. After the strips dried I went back and used emery board and needle files to refine them.
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Because this pendent was a group of heads I had to decided what step to do first, second and so on, so that my work didn't interferer with each zebras head. After the strips and refinement of each zebra head I will start to put on the manes and then assemble the heads. Last the "bail" will be constructed and placed on the back to hold the pendent on the neck piece.
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Completely refined and mane and ears added, ready for assembling for the kiln firing. Soft sponges, water, emery cloth, and needle files were used to refine the pieces.
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The assembled piece is placed on an asbestos pad and packed with pieces of asbestos around raised areas so they won't slump during the firing.
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Placed in the kiln to be fired at 1650 degree F for a holding time of 2 hours. The kiln is digitally programed so I have to set it for temperature, holding time and it will do it all automatically.
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The pendent has been removed from the kiln and cooled. It will now be refined to the luster I want using files, emery cloth, brass brush, and an agate burnisher. At this point, when it comes out of the kiln it is a frost white and the many thousands of pure silver particles are standing on end. By applying the use of the agate burnisher and brass brush I will force the silver particles to lie down so one sees the side of each particle and not the end. When I achieve the desired effect I want I will than dip the piece into "Liver Of Sulfur" to achieve the desired darkness to the silver and then remove some of the black caused by the liver of sulfur so the strips will show against the black background.
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The finished pendent of the "Zebras." The name of this piece is "The Family." It measures 4 1/2" high by 2 3/4" wide. It took about 16 hours to complete.
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