Top 7 items to refine silver clay

Top 7 items to refine silver clay

Silver clay when it is clay, is so easy to refine. In this blog, I share my top 7 items which I use to refine my silver clay pieces before they are fired. Some of them are pretty standard and some of them may surprise you.

Sandpaper

I use a general grit of 600 which does a great job by itself. If you’re sanding something that needs gentle attention, then a 600 grit is a good general all round sand. A grit like this will remove cutter drag marks, little surface scratches and help with small reshaping. I also use this grit after firing if I need to soften drill holes of the ends of cut wire. For example when I’m making my own ear wires. If you need a more aggressive sand paper, then go for a lower grit – 320 or 400 will help you if you need to remove a lot of material quickly or extensively reshape a piece. Bottom line is, that you could also use a 600 grit for the majority of jobs but it will take longer

Sanding sponges 

I like to use 3M sanding sponges and the ones I use are the red, blue and green ones (known as fine, super fine and micro fine). I like these because they’re soft and great for the insides of ring shanks. You can use them when you want to have a higher finish on your silver clay work. Begin sanding with the fine (red), move onto the super fine (blue) and then finally the micro fine (green). This gives a really soft and good overall finish to your silver clay pieces and makes it so much easier to achieve a high finish polis on your work.

You can also use these on fired pieces, especially if you want the high polish finish (have a look at my blog post all about that here). Use them in conjunction with the polishing papers, described below.

Polishing papers

Again these are a product by 3M. There are 6 sheets in total, these are coloured differently and are different grits. They are, in order of grit (lowest to highest) and the way they should be used as follows;

• Green
• Grey
• Blue
• Pink
• Aqua
• White

These are the secret to getting a very high polish and even a mirror polish on your silver clay. You can use them before and after firing and used in conjunction with the sanding pads above and a bit of elbow grease – you can get a wonderful finish on your work.

Emery boards

I love these for sanding straight edges or pieces that have long edges. You can get emery boards in lots of different grits too. Just be careful not to use something of a very low grit on your work because it can take away too much material too quickly and leave deep scratch marks. Better to go slowly and surely then you can correct anything that may not be going quite as planned.

Diamond micro files

These need to be used with a bit of care as they can have quite a low grit and remove material quickly. But they are great for getting into small spaces, refining holes after drilling. These can also be use on fired silver but I would usually opt for a larger file when filing, just because it’s better to use the largest file for the job when filing any metal – makes it a lot easier!

Cocktail sticks

Cocktail sticks are a great addition to any metal clay artists tool kit. They are used for so many things but one of the main reasons I have them is I like to sand with them. Cocktail sticks are mildly abrasive, small and thin and can be used to get into small spaces really easily. Think in between textures, drill holes etc. You can also wrap sand paper or the polishing papers around them too, for an extra bit of abrasion if required.

Baby wipes

I always have a pack of baby wipes in my studio. These days you can get recyclable and environmentally friendly ones which I would always suggest. If you don’t want to use a baby wipe, you could use a paint brush and a damp finger in its place. The great thing about baby wipes is that they have just the right amount of moisture to wipe your piece and then you use a finger to smooth over. It’s perfect for those pieces that are gently curved or highly detailed – especially moulds. Use when you don’t want to spoil to curve or shape or something but you have pesky little cracks in the clay – this method makes them disappear like magic!

I hope you’ve found this list useful! Which items do you use to refine your silver clay with? Were any of them a surprise?