Meet The Maker

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Lisa Jane.
I live in rural Dorset with my two dogs. I walk the forests most weeks with my dogs and am always inspired by shapes and textures when out. I often use real leaves for my jewellery and love creating. I have been working with silver clay since 2013; the first few years were about understanding the nature of clay and how best to work with it; the clay has taught me.

About Silver Clay


Silver Clay (Or Precious Metal Clay) is exactly that, clay made from fine silver particles and once fired is pure silver. This is often referred to as 'Fine Silver'.

Silver clay has been around since 1995 and was originally sourced by Mitsubishi in Japan and is made from extracting the fine silver nitrate from photographic equipment such as x-rays.

Sterling Silver is hallmarked 925, this is because it is only 92.5% silver and the rest is mostly copper, zinc and other alloys (which is why it tarnishes and goes black so quickly). Fine Silver is Hallmarked with a 999 stamp identifying it as 99.9% silver.

Sterling has been favoured by jewellers historically as it is harder than fine silver, this makes a difference if you are hammering  and sawing pieces into shape; you don't need to do this with the Silver Clay as you are able to mold and shape it in your hands.

When working with silver clay you have to be quick as it starts to dry very quickly in your hands; you first roll out the clay, shape, cut and texture as you wish and then leave to dry (this is your eight to ten minute stage); full drying takes about 24 hours. Once dry the edges can be sanded and refined and any carving or alterations made. Once ready this can be fired. 

Once it is fired it is quenched and then sanded, burnished and polished. I don't use any machinery, everything i make is from hand, start to finish. The process can be tiring and hard work but the end result is always something magical.

Fine Silver doesn't tarnish at the same rate as Sterling Silver, however, it does get dull after some time so a quick polish every now with a soft cloth brings the shine right back up; you don't need any special polish but it wont hurt your piece if you wish to use it.