Last week I taught a diploma class at the London Jewellery School which covers three different ways to add gold to silver clay. Gold is an expensive commodity ( 3g of gold clay costs £259.95! Yikes!) but there are other ways to get the look of gold at a more affordable cost. 1. Keum boo Keum boo is adding gold leaf to silver. This is done after the piece is made and polished. The metal needs to be heated (I use my jewellers torch), the gold leaf added to the hot metal and burnished on. (Example of this in the photo above is the heart at the right of the image) 2. Gold paste Gold paste can be painted onto fired silver. I find it is best to do a few layers and I torch fire the piece between layers, burnishing the metal to ensure the gold is well adhered (Example of this in the photo above is the christmas tree at the bottom of the photo) 3. Gold nugget Adding a small piece of gold can enhance the silver clay design. The gold is embedded in the clay when it is wet and...
by Anna Campbell