Metal Clay Materials, Tools, Supplies and Equipment

Basic Materials: Silver and Base Metal Clay

• Silver metal clay —PMC® or Art Clay™ in your choice of formulations (Art Clay™ Silver Slow Dry, Art Clay™ Silver 650, PMC+™, PMC3™, PMC Original™ PMC PRO™, PMC Sterling™etc.). I suggest that for each fine silver formulation you get, you buy the lump clay, paste, syringe and sheet or paper type (if applicable). See my lens on Metal Clay Brands and Formulas for more information.
  
  
• Base metal clay—bronze, copper, steel, rose gold, pearl gray steel, etc., in your preferred brand and formula. Popular brands and formulas include Metal Adventures' BRONZclay™, FASTfire BRONZclay™, and COPPRclay™, Art Clay™ Copper, and Hadar's Clay™ powdered clays in a wide range of metals and formulas. Other brands of base metal clay include Metal Mania (bronze, copper and brass clay) and Météor (bronze and copper clay).
  
  Note:For extensive information about working with the original BRONZclay™ formula, visit my BRONZclay™ bronze metal clay lens.

Other Materials for Working with Metal Clay

• Manmade gemstones (faceted and/or cabochons), dichroic glass cabs, etc. Be sure you know whether or not the stones or cabs you're using can be fired in clay or need to be set post-firing. Gem Resources sells a wide variety of stones, many of which have been test-fired in metal clay. Those that have include the test results in the product information.
  
  
• Wire, bezel wire, bezel cups, and other findings. Use findings that can be embedded and fired in clay successfully or solder them on after firing. Embeddables™ brand findings for carbon-fired silver, bronze or copper clay and fine silver embeddable findings from Metal Clay Supply are designed specifically to be embedded in metal clay and fired in place.
  
  
• Polymer clay—for making carved texture plates, tear-away textures, tool handles, drying and shaping forms, and more. Celie Fago recommends using Sculpey III® for making tear-away textures and Premo! Sculpey® for anything else. Kato Polyclay™ is a high-quality brand created for professional polymer clay artists by Donna Kato.
  
  
• Two-part silicone molding compound for making your own texture molds. For capturing fine details (or molds I plan to use a lot), I love using Knead-a-Mold® from Townsend Atelier and Silicone Plastique®. Other high-quality 2-part silicone molding putties include MegaSil™, Cool Tools' MegaMold, and Whole Lotta Whimsy 2-Part Mold Putty.
  
  
• Photopolymer plate material (for making photopolymer texture plates and stamps). See my lens on Textures in Metal Clay for more information on making photopolymer plates and sources for the supplies needed.
  
  
• Creative Paperclay—a paper-based modeling material you can shape and sculpt, then cover with metal clay. It has a high volcanic ash content that allows it to hold its shape during firing to create a supportive structure for hollow metal clay shapes. It also can be used to fill areas where stones will be set post-firing so that the setting areas don't shrink during firing. Make sure it's absolutely dry all the way through before firing it.
  
  
• Cork clay or wood clay to create armatures to support volumetric pieces (including hollow pieces) during firing. The combustible core or support burns away in the kiln during the firing process, and a slow ramp rate should be used. An open-shelf pre-firing in a kiln is required when used with metal clay formulas that must be fired in activated carbon. Important:Never torch fire these materials; they are highly flammable/combustible!
  
  
• Resin. This can be U/V resin or epoxy resin. It's great for filling metal clay bezels, especially over an image (photo, photocopy, magazine image, drawing, painting, etc.) that has been sealed completely on both sides with clear packing tape or with Mod Podge® (allowed each side to dry thoroughly before embedding in resin) and/or with other embedded items that do not contain any moisture (e.g., dried flowers, herbs, charms, glitter). U/V resin requires a U/V light (such as a U/V nail lamp) or direct sunlight to cure. Resin may be tinted with various colorants or purchased in ready-to-use colors.
  
  
• Enamel, glass paints and/or metal paints to add color.
  
  

Luxury Materials: Gold and Natural Gemstones

Expensive but luxurious!

• PMC Gold™ or Art Clay™ Gold 22k gold clay. Because of the extremely high cost and limited demand, few metal clay suppliers keep it in stock any more, but many will special order it for you.
  
  
• Art Clay™ Gold Paste. This pre-mixed 22K gold thick metal clay slip can be applied to fired silver clay, glass or ceramic and then kiln fired.
  
  
• Aura 22™ or Accent Gold for Silver™. These gold clay "paints" are 22K and 24K gold solutions, respectively, that can be brushed onto silver metal (including silver metal clay) and then fired to bond the two metals.
  
  
• Thick 23.5K or 24K gold foil for keum-boo. Many metal clay suppliers carry either thick 23.5K or 24K gold for keum-boo. Allcraft carries both the thick 24K gold foil and also a special double-thick 24K foil for keum-boo (you'll need to order by phoner).
  
  
• Natural Gemstones (Including precious gems). Some natural stones can be embedded in metal clay and fired in place successfully. Some can be fired successfully only at lower temperatures and/or shorter firing schedules. Some (including diamonds) can't be fired successfully in an atmospheric firing (torch fired or fired on an open kiln shelf, exposed to air) but can be fired successfully in activated carbon. And some heat-sensitive stones will not tolerate any type of firing and must be set post-firing. Mardel Rein of Cool Tools has put together an excellent chart of which gemstones can be fired in metal clay successfully, under what conditions and using which firing schedules that you can download as a PDF from the Cool Tools site.
  
  It's important to buy the highest quality gemstones you can afford if they will be fired in place. The more inclusions a stone has, the more likely it is to fracture during the heating or cooling process.

Basic Metal Clay Tools and Supplies

My personal recommendations for a good basic metal clay toolkit

• A "release agent" to prevent clay from sticking to tools, cutters, work surfaces, molds, texturing mats and materials, etc. - anything that isn't inherently non-stick (e.g., flexible Teflon® sheets, silicone molds, silicone-tipped Clay Shaper and Colour Shaper® tools). In general, I prefer to use olive oil (there are some who recommend against using any oil on rubber stamps, but I personally have never had a problem with it). For intricately detailed textures, I prefer a non-stick spray for metal clay - either Cool Slip from Cool Tools or HattieS® No-Stick™ spray from Metal ClaySupply.
  
  
• Something to prevent clay from sticking to your hands. Olive oil and Badger® Balm are popular and inexpensive choices. Cool Tools has a terrific product called ClayMate for your hands, or you can use their Slik product on your hands, as a release agent and/or as a clay conditioner (see below). Also, I highly recommend applying a very thin film of Gloves In A Bottle® skin shielding lotion on your hands, over and under your nails and worked into your cuticles and then letting it dry before applying your preferred clay release agent to your hands.
  
  
• A work surface. I use a glass surface marked with a grid pattern on the underside that I bought in a crafts store, but there are lots of other good options. A plain piece of acrylic works fine, as does a self-healing cutting mat. If you use a transparent surface such as glass or acrylic sheet, you can tape a piece of graph paper to the underside, creating a useful grid pattern to help you measure and align your clay. Use a release agent or, preferably, cover it with a piece of flexible non-stick (e.g., Teflex or Teflon) sheet or a lightly oiled plastic sheet protector or flexible, transparent report cover (see below) to keep the clay from sticking to the rolling surface.
  
  
• Nonstick sheet, preferably Teflon®, Teflex or Paraflexx™, for rolling out and assembling metal clay components. Fred Woell (see Recommended Suppliers, below) sells fantastic 6" squares of Teflex (Teflon®-coated fiberglass) that are silky-smooth and don't leave a pattern on the back of your clay. Note: Don't use SILPAT®or other textured non-stick sheets!
  
  
• Plastic report covers—clear, not anti-glare or frosted. Highly recommended for rolling out slabs of metal clay (be sure to oil them lightly first.
  
  
• A clay roller. I highly recommend getting a nonstick roller, but you can start out with an acrylic roller or even a 6"–8" piece of PVC pipe in the diameter you prefer (I suggest between 3/4" and 2").
  
  
• Thickness spacers for rolling out evenly-thick clay slabs or sheets. The cheapest method is to use a spare deck of playing cards. (Playing cards can vary slightly in thickness; buying good-quality card makes it more likely that their thickness will conform to the most commonly accepted thickness equivalent for metal clay (01" or .25mm per card). You can tape together stacks of playing cards with the appropriate card value on top and facing up (e.g., for a stack of three cards, use two random cards topped with the 3 of hearts (or spades, diamonds or clubs), face up). You'll need two stacks for each card thickness (two 2-card stacks, two 3-card stacks, etc.) If you can find extra-long playing cards (Umbra is one brand that makes them), you'll appreciate the extra length when you're rolling out your clay. Alternatives include .01" or .25 thick mat board, color-coded plastic graduated slats made specifically for this purpose (available from Art Clay World USA, Whole Lotta Whimsy and several other suppliers), or my favorite, Cool Tools Clay Rolling Frames.
  
  
• A cup or dish for water. Avoid using a lightweight cup, such as a disposable paper or plastic cup (except in a class or workshop); they're too easy to knock over accidentally and create an unwanted water spill. I prefer to use a covered glass individual butter dish (I got mine from Crate & Barrel), and first heard about this idea from a>. I love the fact that it's glass and has a wide base, so it won't tip over, and that it has a lid to keep the water from evaporating in between work sessions. Another good option is to get a small, rectangular glass caddy for sugar or artificial sweetener packets. Regardless of the container you choose, clean it very well before switching from one type of clay to another, or get a dedicated water dish for different types of clay to avoid cross-contamination.
  
  
• Distilled water. You can use tap water if the water in your area is fairly pure, but distilled water will discourage mold from forming on your stored clay and slip and also will give you more predictable results with liver of sulfur (LOS) patinas, which will be affected by whatever minerals and other impurities may be in your local water supply.
  
  
• Slip containers. Use any small, clean, plastic or glass containers with air-tight snap-on or screw-on lids. Well-washed, empty film canisters and lip gloss pots are great for this purpose.
  
  
• Palette knife (metal and/or plastic). I use both types for mixing slip, reconstituting dried clay, mixing glycerin into clay to make it flexible, etc.
  
  
• Small, good-quality, synthetic bristle artist's paintbrushes. At a minimum, you should have a small pointed brush, a flat-edged "bright" brush, and a medium round brush, plus a water brush (the water brushes with built-in water reservoirs in the handles are very handy). Keep a separate, dedicated set of brushes for fine silver clay, sterling silver clay, PMC PRO™, and each type of base metal clay to avoid cross-contamination.
  
  
• Short-term and long-term clay storage containers. My lens on metal clay storage provides a range of excellent long-term and short-term metal clay storage solutions.
  
  
• Plastic food wrap for keeping clay moist. I like Stretch-Tite® brand, which I find to be stronger than most other brands.
  
  
• A small refillable spray bottle for water, such as a Nalgene® travel cosmetic spray bottle or clean atomizer. Tip: Get an extra and fill it with olive oil for misting your hands, tools, clay, work surface, etc. I also recommend getting an additional atomizer/mist bottle with a very fine spray for misting clay lightly with water when it gets a little dry.
  
  
• Texturing materials. This can be anything from toothpaste caps to buttons to lace or fabric to texture mats/texture plates to natural materials - wood, stones, leaves, even food! My lens on metal clay textures will give you dozens of different ideas for things you can use to texture your clay.
  
  
• Sharp clay cutting and slicing tools—disposable scalpels,clay blades, tissue blades (both rigid and flexible), X-ACTO® or similar craft knife, etc.
  
  
• Needle tool. I use both a regular needle tool and one with an ultra-fine point. You also can make a custom handle out of polymer clay. Form the handle, insert the needle, cure the clay, and pull out the needle. Sand and finish the polymer clay tool handle as desired and then glue the needle back into the hole in the handle.
  
  
• Small aspic, clay, fondant, sugarpaste or cookie cutters.
  
  
• Plastic drawing templates for basic shapes and curves. Any art supply store or drafting supplier will have a selection of these, and many metal clay suppliers carry at least a couple of basic shape templates.
  
  
• Thin-walled metal tubing or drinking straws in as many sizes as you can collect for cutting holes in clay, forming bails, etc. Celie Fago and Linda Stiles Smith have created wonderful nesting hole cutters from brass tubing.
  
  
• Pin vise and small twist drill bits for metal. Tip: Art Jewelry Magazine's downloadable drill bit size conversion chart is a handy tool for converting jewelry-size drill bit numbers to the equivalent diameters in inches and millimeters.
  
  
• Clay Shapers and/or rubber-tipped Colour Shapers® (sometimes referred to as "rubber fingers") in a variety of tip sizes and shapes. These are especially good for caulking cracks or joints with fresh clay, syringe or thick slip and then smoothing the surface and blending the fresh material seamlessly into the surrounding clay. Available from Dick Blick and many metal clay suppliers.
  
  
• Open-cell foam sheet. Air drying metal clay components is ideal, since it minimized warping or cracking around the edges. Placing them on top of a piece of open-cell foam sheet (available at fabric stores) allows some air to get underneath the fresh clay so it can air dry more evenly.
  
  
• Wooden toothpicks for cleaning holes in metal clay greenware (dried but not fired metal clay) and for smoothing greenware in small areas where sanding abrasives can't reach.
  
  
• Cosmetic sponges and sponge-tipped applicators (such as eyeshadow applicators) for smoothing dried metal clay pieces before firing. You can find these in any drugstore (or maybe in your cosmetics drawer or bag, if you have any unused sponges and/or applicators).
  
  
• Salon boards/nail boards in different grits, from coarse to fine for pre-finishing bone-dry, unfired clay. You can get the Kiss® brand at chain drugstores like CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid. Sally Beauty Supply carries the Tropical Shine 4-way Buffer.
  
  
• Needle files. Have separate sets for greenware and for metal (including fired metal clay), and separate sets for different types of metal.
  
  
• Disposable, moist baby wipes for smoothing metal clay greenware prior to firing. I find that the thin wipes give a smoother finish than the thicker ones.
  
  
• Wet/dry sandpaper or emery paper in grits 400, 600, 800 and 1200, plus higher grits from automotive supply stores if you want to achieve a mirror shine on silver clay.
  
  
• Foam-backed sanding sponges. I recommend 3M™ Softback Sanding Sponges in Medium, Fine, Superfine, Ultrafine and Microfine grits.
• Micro-Mesh™ color-coded sanding/polishing swabs. You'll need separate sets for different types of metal clay, and separate sets for unfired vs. fired metal clay.
  
  
• 3M™ Wetordry™ Polishing Papers—color-coded, micron-graded polishing papers in 400, 600, 1200, 4000, 6000 and 8000 grit equivalents. Not absolutely essential unless you're trying to achieve a mirror finish, but they make a big difference in the smoothness of the finish. I recommend getting several sets—one to use on each type of metal clay greenware and another set for each type of fired metal clay (metal).
  
  A great tip I learned from Tonya Davidson of Whole Lotta Whimsy is to mark the back of each piece with a permanent marker to identify the grit until you memorize the color coding.
  
  
• Soft, large brass and stainless steel wire-bristle brushes for initial burnishing of just-fired metal clay. Unless you want to scratch the surface of fine silver intentionally (which can create a soft, matte finish similar to a Florentine finish), use the brass brush on fired silver clay and the stainless steel brush on fired base metal clay.
  
  
• Burnisher— metal, agate or both. There are different shapes of burnishers; mostly, choosing one is matter of preference. Agate burnishers, while more expensive than metal, stay cooler while burnishing gold foil to fine silver for keum-boo, but cannot be quenched in water. You also can use a stainless steel butter knife or spoon as a burnisher.
  
  
• Torch-firing board or shelf and a protective surface to put it on. I like to use a Solderite™ board or shelf placed on top of a soldering tripod.
  
  
• Insulated tweezers, regular and cross-lock for quenching hot metal, soldering, and much more.
  
  
• Extra-long tweezers for removing items from the kiln (if you're using one).
  
  
• Lidded container for firing metal clay in activated carbon. I recommend stainless steel covered steam-table pans or Cool Tools No-Flake Firing Foil, which can be cut and folded into small, lidded boxes in custom sizes that don't spall (shed black flakes) in the kiln. If you use a ceramic fiber or other firing container, you will need to do test firings with metal clay test strips to adjust the firing schedule accordingly.
  
  
• Activated carbon for clay formulas that need to be carbon fired. This includes PMC Sterling™, PMC PRO™, and most formulas of base metal clay. Fine silver clay embedded with certain heat-sensitive stones (including diamonds) can be torch-fired briefly or fired on an open shelf briefly (depending on what the particular gemstone will tolerate) and then fired in activated carbon. Some (but not all) gemstones that cannot be fired successfully in an atmospheric firing (i.e., exposed to air while being fired on an open kiln shelf or with a torch) will survive a carbon firing successfully. See my lens on Gemstones in Metal Clay for more information about firing gemstones in metal clay successfully.
  
  
• Heat- and fire-resistant gloves. Wear welding gloves or gloves made from Zetex®, ZetexPlus® or Kevlar® when handling hot metal or reaching into the kiln to remove your fired pieces or hot firing container.
  
  
• Liver of Sulfur (AKA Liver of Sulphur) and a dedicated synthetic paint brush for applying it. Liver of Sulfur (often referred to as LOS) can produce beautiful rainbow patinas or dark grey-black patinas on silver metal. It also can be used to darken copper and bronze. Liver of Sulfur degrades when exposed to light and/or moisture, and liquid LOS has a much shorter shelf life than dry chunks, which in turn have a much shorter shelf life than LOS patina gel. If you are going to use dried LOS chunks, buy only as much as you expect to use within six months. Buy LOS that comes in a small metal can or opaque jar or canister with a resealable, air-tight lid and store it in a dark, cool place.
  
  Note: To get a true black patina on metal (including fired metal clay), you would need to use a strong chemical oxidizer like' Griffith Silver Black Oxidizer or Black Max™. These can produce a black patina instantly on contact with gold, bronze and copper as well as silver metal The problem is that these oxidizers consist mostly of very strong acid, which means they are toxic, corrosive, and can do permanent damage to you if you come into direct contact with one of them! They also require special handling and safety precautions, not to mention protecting whatever they come into contact with (like your sink, if it's stainless steel). Personally, I won't use them, but if you do, make sure to handle them with the appropriate respect and follow all the recommended safety precautions (at the minimum!). But if you can live without a pure black patina, LOS or Baldwin's Patina are much healthier, safer, less dangerous options.
  
  
• Baldwin's Patina for darkening copper and steel but not bronze, silver or gold. Great for mixed metals applications including mokume-gane.
  
  
• Metal polish— and soft polishing cloth. I recommend Wenol® Metal Polish or Pikal® Care, applied very sparingly with a clean, dry, untreated polishing cloth.
  
  
• Treated polishing cloths and/or thin foam polishing pads such as Sunshine® Polishing Cloths and/or Pro Polish Pads. For removing excess patina from the high points of a finished piece or removing light tarnish periodically.
  
  
• Untreated polishing cloths such as Selvyt® Universal Polishing Cloths (woven unbleached cotton) or Selvyt® Professional heavy-weight Polishing Cloths (unbleached cotton velvet) for final polishing to remove dust, fingerprints, and any metal polish residue from metal.
  
  
• Ruler and measuring tape.
  
  
• Pencils, good erasers, and paper for sketching designs, making pattern templates, placing cutting, drilling, or syringe guidelines or registration marks on metal clay greenware, etc.
  
  
• Small, sharp scissors for cutting out paper templates.

Other Useful Tools and Supplies

• Micro-carving tools for carving leather-hard metal clay and cured polymer clay. I highly recommend Dockyard micro carving tools. See the next section for more information about choosing and using Dockyard carving tools on metal clay and polymer clay.
• Clay extruder, extruder discs (AKA dies), and adapters for extruding tubes. If you will be using silver metal clay, the extruder should be stainless steel (such as the Makin's® Professional™ Ultimate Clay Extruder™ —Stainless Steel Edition, which was designed specifically for use with metal clay) or anodized aluminum (such as the (such as the Makin's® Professional™ Ultimate Clay Extruder™). Aluminum that does not have an anodized coating will cause an adverse reaction when it comes in contact with silver metal clay. A set of basic extruder discs come with the extruder; sets of additional discs in different sizes and/or shapes can be purchased separately. If you want to extrude tubes for bails, hinges, etc., you'll also need the Makin's® Professional™ ClayCore%u2122 extruder adapters, which fit both models of the Makin's® Professional™ Ultimate Clay Extruder™.
• Stone-setting burs.
• Assortment of tweezers—I use a fine, bent-tipped tweezer with serrated tips for picking up gemstones, a fine, smooth-tipped straight tweezer for keum-boo foil and a cross-lock tweezer for holding things (plus the aforementioned insulated tweezers for quenching and soldering).
• Isopropyl alcohol from the drugstore (for cleaning the tops of gemstones before firing).
• Cotton swabs (e.g., Q-tips®) and/or foam-tipped swabs. Cotton swabs can be used to clean the tops of fire-in-place gemstones with isopropyl alcohol before firing (pointed-tip cotton swabs are best for this) or to apply patina solutions to metal (traditional round-tip swabs are best for this). Narrow foam-tipped eye shadow applicators from the drugstore also can be used with isopropyl alcohol to clean off gemstones prior to firing.
• Bezel roller.
• Ring sizing pellets (such as HattieS® Patties™) or molds and jeweler's investment to make your own.
• Ring mandrel. A stepped, stainless steel mandrel and/or a MultiMandrel™ is best if you can afford it. If your mandrel is made from aluminum (other than anodized aluminum, which will not react adversely with silver metal clay), be sure to cover it with a layer of freezer wrap or a HattieS® Ring Forming Strip before using it to form a silver metal clay ring band.
• Metal hammers and a rawhide mallet including a riveting hammer or, preferably, a goldsmith's hammer with a cross-peen end for riveting wire or metal tubing through pieces of fired clay (or other metal).
• Steel bench block. If you can afford two, you can straighten short lengths of wire by rolling the wire between the two blocks.
• Tuff Brake - a flexible, translucent rubbery material that protects the surface of your metal when you tap it with a rawhide mallet to flatten it. Can be ordered from Pauline Warg or Fred Woell (see the Recommended Suppliers section below).
• Straight toenail clipper to use as a cheap and effective flush cutter for wire.
• Jeweler's pickle—a prepared saturated solution of dried acid granules in water that is used to remove oxidation (including firescale) from the surface of most metals (do not use with steel). The most commonly used jeweler's pickle is a solution of Sparex® No. 2 pickling compound or pH Down (a swimming pool chemical), both of which are mainly sodium bisulphate. These are strong, corrosive acids that must be used with active ventilation and protective gear for hands, eyes, clothing, containers and work surfaces. Metal pickled in one of these so-called "safety pickle" solutions also must have the acid neutralized in a solution of baking soda in water. Also, use copper tongs to place the metal into or take it out of the pickle to avoid contamination the pickle solution.
  
  Safer, healthier and more eco-friendly choices include citric acid pickle, which needs to be kept at a gentle boil during use, and vinegar and salt pickle (1 to 2 teaspoons of salt mixed into 1 cup of white vinegar) which should be used warm but not hotor heat your pickle solution.
• Pliers—one pair each of round nose, flat nose and chain nose at a minimum. Bail-forming pliers can be extremely useful as well.
• Jeweler's saw and blades.
• For keum-boo: Heavy leather gloves (if you're using a hotplate or camp stove) or deerskin gardening gloves that fit well (if you're using an UltraLite kiln).
• 3M Radial Bristle Discs (red, blue, pink, green and peach—use them in that order) and a miniature screw mandrel to put them on. These are amazing for polishing metal. (Don't use them on unfired metal clay!) Stack three to six 9/16", 3/4" or 1" diameter discs on the mandrel to use with a Dremel® or flexshaft tool. (There also are 2", 3" and 6" diameter discs available for use on a bench lathe, if you have one.) Tip: When mounting the discs, if your rotary tool or lathe spins counterclockwise, stack the discs on the mandrel with the bristles curving clockwise (towards the right); if your rotary tool or lathe spins clockwise, then stack the discs with the bristles curving left (counterclockwise). Use a very light touch so that only the tips of the bristles touch the metal.
• Rubber block or hockey puck. Great for bracing your work while you sand, polish or carve. Art Clay World sells a rubber block with a square hole in the middle that's great for sanding and/or filing.
• Sanding sticks or emery sticks in a range of grits from 400 to 1000. Make them yourself by wrapping wet/dry automotive sandpaper sheets or emery paper very tightly and smoothly around a wood paint stick and then taping along the top and bottom edges (the short sides) with masking tape. Once you've used up the exposed surface, just tear it off to expose a fresh area of the abrasive.
• File cleaning brush (AKA a card file)—a metal-bristle brush for cleaning accumulated metal clay dust and metal particles that can clog your metal files and cutting or setting burs.
• Soldering tools and supplies including cross-lock tweezers with insulated handles, stainless steel binding wire, stainless steel T-pins, flux, fire coat, solder, solder pick, your choice of soldering surface (e.g., charcoal block, honeycomb block, fire brick), etc.
• Extra Solderite™ boards. Use them as extra kiln shelves, cut them into 1" x 2" rectangles to use as kiln furniture/kiln shelf spacers, or cut one into four equal strips and arrange them into a square frame that you can wrap with stainless steel binding wire and set on top of another Solderite™ board or kiln shelf to fill with vermiculite as a tray for firing volumetric silver metal clay pieces in the kiln. A scrap of Solderite™ board also can be used to prop up one corner of a carbon-firing container lid to vent it (a tip I picked up from Tim McCreight).

Basic Metal Clay Equipment

• Magnifier (or magnifying glasses or a magnifying visor) and a good daylight lamp. Even tiny imperfections, hairline cracks, etc. in your unfired clay that you can't see with the naked eye (even with good light) will be exacerbated (and likely visible) after firing, so it's important to check your pieces under magnification and good lighting before firing them. Examining your unfired piece under good light with a magnifier, filling or repairing any cracks, chips or dings, making sure that there are no fingerprints or tiny bits of metal clay residue on fire-in-place gemstones, and refining the greenware until you're totally satisfied with it will help ensure that you'll be happy with the finish after your fire your piece. This is especially important for pieces that will be given a mirror finish or a patina treatment, both of which will reveal otherwise invisible imperfections. And, of course, perfecting the piece is MUCH faster, easier, and less wasteful in the clay stage than in the metal stage!
  
  
• Butane torch and high-quality butane fuel (I recommend using at least triple-refined butane) for firing small and/or thin pieces of fine silver clay or Art Clay™ Copper, doing an initial binder burn-off for metal clay that needs to be carbon-fired, fusing fine silver wire, balling fine or sterling silver wire, and lots of other uses. Look for a torch that has a large fuel capacity/long burn time and that reaches at least 2370°F. One that reaches 2500°F will give you even more flexibility.
  
  
• Kiln suitable for metal clay with an electronic controller, plus kiln shelves and kiln furniture. You can start with a butane torch if you plan to fire only fine silver clay or small pieces of Art Clay™ Copper, but to do nearly anything else you'll also need a kiln.
  
  
• Electric mug warmer (AKA cup warmer or candle warmer) or hotplate.Useful for drying pieces quickly, although the high heat can cause wet clay to warp and/or develop small cracks around the edges as it dries, since the outside dries (and shrinks) much faster than the inside. See my lens on Drying Metal Clay for much more information about metal clay drying options and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
  
  

Other Equipment to Consider

• Food dehydrator or blow dryer with a low heat setting. While not essential, a food dehydrator is extremely useful for speeding up the air drying process somewhat without promoting much warping, as long as you use it on the no-heat or lowest heat setting. Look for one with wide, tall shelves that can accommodate larger pieces of clay without crowding. If you plan to do a lot of metal clay work, I highly recommend the Excalibur® brand, if you can afford it. A cheaper alternative is to create a homemade "drying box" by cutting a hole in a cardboard box to fit the nozzle of a blow dryer (for hair). See my lens on Drying Metal Clay for instructions on building and using a drying box.
  
  
• A tumbler and appropriate burnishing media. A rotary tumbler, stainless steel shot and burnishing liquid is the least expensive option and works well, but slowly (think hours, not minutes). A magnetic finisher/tumbler with stainless steel pins will work in a fraction of the time of a rotary tumbler and the tiny pins can get into small areas more effectively, and vibratory tumblers with appropriate tumbling media are favored by many professional metal clay artists, but both of these are significantly more expensive pieces of equipment than a rotary tumbler.
  
  
• A Dremel® or flexshaft (e.g., Foredom®) electric rotary tool.
  
  
• For keum-boo, an UltraLite Beehive kiln with optional red brass inserts, or a flat-burner hot plate or camp stove and a 6"x6" piece of red brass sheet. The UltraLite Beehive kiln is far and away the best heat source for doing keum-boo, but it's also more expensive than a hot plate or camp stove and a piece of brass sheet. You may want to read my UltraLite Beehive kiln product review to learn more about this versatile "trinket kiln," which can be used for granulation, for enameling and (with the optional ceramic inserts) for firing metal clay as well as for keum-boo (with the optional red brass inserts).
  
  
• UV light setup for exposing photopolymer plates, drying UV resin, etc.
  
  
• Toner-based laser photocopier that reduces and enlarges (or access to one)—for determining pre- or post-shrinkage size of metal clay components, making cutting templates, making enlarged photocopies of non-fireable gemstones to create bezel templates, etc. Important: You'll need a laser copier with toner-based ink to make tear-away textures, photopolymer plates, or photocopy transfer resists for etching metal.
  
  
• Electric pickle pot (or Pyrex® lidded saucepan dedicated exclusively to pickle) and copper tongs. A small electric slow cooker (such as a Crock-Pot®) makes a good pickle pot.
  
  
• Jeweler's torch set-up including a torch with several different-size tips, fuel (gas and either air or oxygen, depending on the torch), regulators (if applicable), striker. You can do a lot with a high-quality, large-capacity, hot butane torch, but for soldering gold or large pieces of metal, or for balling large-diameter wire, gold wire, or balling both ends of a wire (for a hinge, etc.), you'll need something hotter and with more control over the size, temperature, and fuel mixture proportion of the flame.
  
  

Recommended Suppliers for Metal Clay Tools and Supplies - US (no web site)

• Allcraft Jewelry Supply
  Allcraft carries excellent quality 24k keum-boo foil in regular thickness and double thickness). The piece of foil they sell is also larger than the size most metal clay suppliers sell. They also have nearly any tool you can think of - just talk with Tevel, the owner, about what you need. Unfortunately, they have no catalog and no longer have a web site, so you'll need to call, fax or write to them.
  
  135 WEST 29TH STREET
  SUITE 402
  NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10001-5193
  Telephone 1-800-645-7124
  Fax 1-800-645-7125
  
  
• J. Fred Woell Fred is an extremely experienced, talented and respected metalsmith, metal arts instructor, and Rio Rewards PMC certification instructor whose work was recognized in the Smithsonian "Archives of American Art." He's also an incredibly nice person who sells some very useful PMC-related supplies (e.g., Teflon-coated fiberglass rolling sheets, Tuff Brake and more) and tools he designs and makes himself (including a wonderful handcrafted spatula with a thin, flexible blade for turning and flattening PMC pieces as they are drying on a mug warmer or similar). He doesn't have a web site, but you can contact him at redwheel@peoplepc.com for a full list of what he sells or to place an order. His customer service is second to none.