I just bought a small amount of PMC3 to play around with. I’ve worked with polymer based clay before so I thought that this would be easy. BUT IT’S NOT THE SAME AT ALL! This clay seems to always be too wet or too dry. I can’t seem to find an in between point and it’s so expensive that I hate to ruin it.
Has anybody here had experience with this stuff?
Do you have a kiln? You know the stuff doesn’t just bake in an oven, right?
It is very temperamental and I’ve known artists who have given up regular metalsmithing to just work in PMC because it takes such skill. I liken it to pie dough in that it is so easy to screw up. Too wet and it can literally dissolve in your hands. Too dry and it cracks and is unworkable.
Had never heard of it before, so I went out to look at what sort of stuff was being made via this process:
http://www.pmcguild.com/gallery/pmc-decade-exhibit/index.html
I’d say that it all looks like professionally jeweled items…which makes one wonder what the advantage is? I’d have to imagine that the base material costs more (per unit of finished product) since you’re paying for all of the silver/gold/metal that makes it through to the end, plus the binder, plus the processing. I guess it mostly just spares you from having to slave over a torch all day?
No, I don’t, but it can also be fired very carefully with a torch.
I know all of this. I was look for advice to make it easier to deal with. 
Imagine all of the things that you can do with regular clay… In theory, you can do those with PMC also. And I don’t know if you saw any examples, but stamped items such as this (the tree part) can be done with PMC. I’m not sure, but I think it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to do this with regular silver.
Like I said, I’ve worked with polymer clay before and also with metals to make jewelry and other items, but this is nothing like either one, really. And you’re correct, it is very, very expensive and that’s my fear of how steep the learning curve is going to be vs. the price of the clay.
Just checking - you can understand there are tons of wanna-be jewelers who buy it thinking they can make stuff in their toaster oven.
Are you on the Ganoksin site? That is probably the best resource for you (as well as the aforementioned PMC guild site).
Actually, that is what has kept me from buying it all of these years because I didn’t realize that I could use a torch. I thought that the only method was with a kiln.
Thanks for the website.
The only thing I know about using a torch over a kiln is that it can often cause the piece to shrink and form in a less-consistent fashion. The benefit of a kiln is the constant, slow heat while with the torch, it is easier to overheat edges and not get enough heat to larger sections. I would start without something consistently sized instead of a design with thick-and-thin parts.
It is slightly ironic for me that PMC was just being introduced to the community when I was finishing my MFA in jewelry. As students, we were given samples of it to experiment. The bug never bit me and while I’ve played with it, I’ve never done any serious design with it.