is silver metal clay eco-friendly?
Is silver metal clay eco-friendly? Jewellers and consumers are more aware than ever of environmental concerns. While all materials in jewellery making have pros and cons, here are five reasons that silver metal clay is eco-friendly.
Is silver clay eco-friendly?
There are lots of considerations when thinking about whether something is eco-friendly. Silver metal clay is a manufactured material and the main brand is made in Japan so there are manufacturing and shipping considerations. However, on the whole, I would say that silver clay is an eco-friendly product because:
the silver is 100% recycled
Silver metal clay is made up of 100% recycled silver. The silver is recycled from lots of different sources including X-rays, the by-products of the photographic industry (they use silver nitrate), electronic devices - even the back windscreen of your car has silver in it to stop it from fogging up!
2. The binder is organic and plant-based
Metal clay is made of silver particles, a binder and some water. The binder binding the silver particles together in silver clay is an organic plant-based binder.
3. the clay can be reconstituted
There is no waste with silver clay. Any dust from sanding the dry clay pieces, pieces that you’ve made that you don’t like etc can be reconstituted - ground up to be made into clay again by adding water so nothing needs to be discarded - we can recycle it ourselves.
Check out this short video on how to do it.
4. You can get started with minimal tools
Metal clay was invented in the 1990s and the first metal clay artists purposely used items from around the house to work with the clay rather than inventing new tools. For example, we use playing cards to ensure the clay is at an even thickness. We use cocktail sticks for making holes in the clay. We can use a creme brule cooks torch for heating the clay to sinter the metal particles into a solid piece of silver. So that means we do not need to buy lots of new items, we can reuse and repurpose things we already have.
5. No harmful chemicals
We do not need to use any harmful chemicals when working with silver clay. It is a non-toxic substance. You could eat silver metal clay and there would be no harmful effects (although we wouldn’t recommend it!)
one year online diploma in silver metal clay
If you would love to learn how to make jewellery from this magic material do check out our one year online Diploma in Silver Metal Clay. Click the button below to find out what you could achieve.