Art Clay is easy to work with: you can shape it in minutes, dry it quickly with a hair drier, fire it on your kitchen gas hob, and polish it with toothpaste. You start with soft clay and end up with real solid 999 silver: ready to wear, give, or sell.

You can design and make your own unique necklaces, bracelets, charms, keepsakes, earrings, rings, brooches, anklets, ornaments, and seasonal decorations.

You can add silver clasps to clothes, overlays to gift cards, motifs to handbags, highlights to wood, ceramics, glass, and shells, and produce complex shapes and patterns from moulds.

You could also take a teacher-certification course, start your own business, resell all the clays, kilns, and tools, and run your own classes.

Art Clay, sometimes called silver clay, gold clay, metal clay, or precious-metal clay, is made by Aida Chemical Industries in Japan: it's a composite clay-like material, made of fine silver or gold powder and a harmless organic binder.

As it's fired, in a kiln, on a kitchen gas hob, on a camping gaz ring, or with a butane torch, the binder vapourises and the metal powder sinters, leaving solid 999 silver or 22 carat gold: real metal, not something that just looks like metal. During firing, small amounts of non-toxic carbon dioxide and water vapour are released: so it's safe to use at home.

The firing temperature and time are important: metal clay has to sinter, not melt. There's a difference between sintering and melting. During sintering, metal powders bond to produce solid metal, but don't melt. During melting, metals become liquid and lose their original shape.

Art Clay is available as 650 silver clay, original silver, slow dry, slow tarnish, paste, oil paste, overlay paste, syringe clay, paper clay, gold clay, gold paste, gold foil, and cork clay.

The photos show examples of gold leaf applied to Art Clay silver pendants. To look at the photos, hold your mouse over the appropriate zoom button below. The photos are 480px x 360px and about 100KB so, if you're not on a fast internet connection they'll take a short while to download.

Silver And Gold Pendant.

Silver And Gold Pendant.

To learn more about working with metal clays, buying and using kilns and tools, or choosing a course, look at The Art Clay Club, using the The Art Clay Club link above the menu bar.

The Art Clay Club is an information resource, not a shop, providing free on-line help, 24 7 52: you don't have to register, log on, or remember a password.

Art Clay is not in the Cherry Heaven on-line shop. To buy Art Clay, and learn how to work with it, transfer to a dedicated resource, The Kitiki Studio, using the Kitiki link above the menu bar. Alternatively, visit the Cherry Heaven Shop in Corfe Castle village.

Cherry Heaven, through The Kitiki Studio, is a UK distributor for Art Clay made by Aida Chemical Industries in Japan, and an EU distributor for AccentGold For Silver paint and Metal Clay Veneer, both made in the US.

Cherry Heaven, through Electric Kilns, is an EU distributor for Paragon Kilns made by Paragon Industries in the US, and, through The UltraLite Kiln, an EU distributor for the Ultra Lite Kiln made by JEC Products in the US.

The Kitiki Studio is an Art Clay UK distributor, an on-line shop, and a learning centre, and provides the full Art Clay range: silver clay, slow dry, slow tarnish, paste, oil paste, overlay paste, syringe clay, paper clay, gold clay, gold paste, gold foil, cork clay, kilns, tools, books, and other materials

Aida-certified and SilverClay-certified teachers provide a comprehensive educational programme: classes, masterclasses, workshops, and Art Clay Level 1 and Level 2 teacher-certification courses.

The on-line shop includes electric kilns, rotary tumblers, magnetic polishers, ultrasonic cleaners, mini-drills, pliers, cutters, engravers, mandrels, triblets, ring guages, scribers, burnishers, abrasives, adhesives, polishes, and safety equipment.