Metal Clay & Enamel Flower Earring Tutorial

Michelle from Buttercup Jewellery shows you how easy it is to make your own metal clay and enamel earrings!

This is a perfect project for those interested in learning to make jewellery from metal clay and who would like to start exploring vitreous enamelling. This tutorial is to make two pairs of dangly fine silver flower earrings that can be left plain to show off the beautiful silver, or enamelled in a choice of opaque enamels.

The flowers are made from Art Clay Silver Metal Clay, but other makes such as PMC will work just as well. Either of these brands will produce fine silver (99% pure) after firing. The enamels used are lead-free opaque enamels. Lead-free enamel powder, while not poisonous, is an irritant so it is recommended that a mask is worn during the enamelling process and that food and drink are not consumed in the area, while enamel powders are being used.

If you give this fun project a go, please tag @kernowcraft & @buttercupjewellery in your posts on social media as we'd love to share!

You can shop metal clay tools and supplies online with Kernowcraft and source the other tools and materials needed across various online shops.

Pack of 10g Art Clay Silver - 7g is sufficient for this project
Small plastic roller
Pack of playing cards or plastic spacers
A non-stick work mat
Olive oil
Baby wipes
Flower shaped cutter (1.3 cm) - wide selection of flower cutters for fondant icing on Amazon
Cocktail stick
Small lidded tub
Sanding pads
Jewellers gas torch and butane gas canister (available from Amazon) or a small kiln (if you already own one!)
Soldering block

Metal teaspoon or burnisher, polishing papers or Barrelling Machine Kit
Brass brush
Rubber gloves
Small water spray bottle
Tweezers
Pages from an old magazine
Opaque enamel powders
Enamel sieves
Tripod and gauze or a kiln if you already have one
Mask for when sieving enamel
Jump rings (4mm used in this project but size needed may depend on your design)
Earwires or necklet chain if you'd like to make a necklace instead
Pair of snipe nose pliers

Watch The Tutorial Or Follow Step By Step Photos Below

Part 1: How To Make Metal Clay Earrings

Step 1

Make two stacks of six cards and place them on top of your work mat, with a space between of around 4cm.

Apply a tiny amount of olive oil onto this space and onto your roller to prevent sticking.

Too much oil will make your clay hard to work with and may change how it fires later, so be very sparing.

Step 2

Open your pack of clay and unwrap the plastic wrapping, but keep this to one side as you may need it for left over clay later. Form the clay into a ball and place on the lightly oiled area of your mat between the two stacks of cards. Now roll the clay with a forwards and back movement. Lift the clay and turn 90 degrees and remove one card from each stack. Roll the clay again.

Step 3

Now place the clay on a playing card (it will stay on this to dry). Position this between the two stacks of cards and roll once more.

Step 4

Your clay is now ready to cut. Use your flower cutter to cut out two flowers and place them out of the way to dry.

Step 5

Roll the remaining clay into a ball. If it is starting to dry out you can spray the ball with a fine mist of water, as you roll it in your hand. If you would like to make extra charms for another pair of earrings or perhaps a matching pendant, roll it out using your roller, following steps 2 and 3 as before. Cut out two more flower shapes and place them to one side to dry. If there is any clay leftover, wrap it in the plastic it came in and reseal it in the original packet. A wet-wipe wrapped around the plastic can be helpful to maintain moist conditions and stop the clay drying out.

Step 6

Use a cocktail stick to make a hole in each flower so that you can pop a jump ring through when the earrings are completed. Bear in mind that the clay shrinks on firing by 10% so make sure each hole is big enough.

Step 7

Now let the clay flowers dry. This can be overnight, or the process can be sped up by using a cup warmer or placing the playing cards onto a radiator, or your kiln as it is heating, if you are using one. To check the flowers are dry place them on a reflective surface, like a small mirror. If there is condensation, they are not dry enough for firing.

Step 8

Once the flowers have dried, tidy up any rough edges with sanding pads and once again make sure the jump ring hole is wide enough. But be gentle as the clay is very fragile at this point.

Tip: Try to catch any bits of clay that are sanded off, as these can be saved and reused later.

Step 9

Now you are ready to fire your pieces. Place them on a soldering block and use a gas torch. Position the flame 5 cm above the clay and heat at a 45-degree angle. The clay will smoke and catch fire, but this is normal and only happens for a few seconds, so don’t panic!

Heat until the clay takes on a peachy glow. At this point, start timing on your phone or a stopwatch and maintain the heat on the clay for 2 minutes. If the clay starts to glow red, move the heat away briefly until the peach colour returns and then continue firing. After two minutes turn off the torch and allow the flowers to cool.

If you have a kiln you can place the dried clay flowers in here to fire. I set my kiln to 900 degrees and fire for 2 hours, to ensure the silver is strong. However, for small pieces, some recommend a shorter firing of around 15 minutes.

Step 10

After firing, your clay will have magically become fine silver, as the binder has burnt away and the molecules of clay have bonded together. But at the moment it has a pearlescent white appearance. You can now reveal the silver by using a brass brush to scrub the flowers, under a running tap.

You can then make the clay shine by burnishing with the back of a spoon or a burnisher or working your way through the colour grades of polishing papers. Alternatively, you can pop your flowers into a barrel polisher with steel shot, Barrelbrite, water and a drop of washing up liquid. After 10-15 minutes the flowers will be shining silver!

Step 11

So now you have the knowledge to make fine silver charms. These can be left as they are and added to ear wires, made into pendants or charms for bracelets.

However, you can make them even more special by adding a splash of colour using vitreous enamels - see the step by step photos below!