Maybe, someday, possibly...

Maybe, someday, possibly-- I might eventually try PMC. (PMC = precious metal clay, "regular" polymer clay's costlier cousin, which you can read more about here, here and here, among other places.)

The main thing keeping me from considering it at the present is cost. The PMC itself isn't exactly cheap-- Really, what else would you expect from a material that contains and turns into silver or gold?! (g)-- and I'd have to buy some new tools (including either a kiln or a torch, probably). I'd also have to do a whole lot more research, because I don't know much about the firing process, etc. So, I doubt PMC is in my immediate future, but maybe someday I'll work up the courage and enthusiasm-- and save up enough proceeds from the sales of "regular clay" items so that I won't feel so guilty about the cost. ;o)

If I were to work with PMC, this is the type of thing I'd like to make: Beadfuddled. (I saw the link on Heather Powers' blog.) So many of these gorgeous pieces make me think of the ocean. Some of them give the illusion of bits of jewelry or coinage scavenged from distant shipwrecks. Others have a more organic appearance-- almost as though they are combined with pieces of sea creatures. (Some of these are obviously mixed-media pieces.) I can almost smell the salt air and feel the thunder of the surf!

Well, even if I'm not presently set up to work with PMC, I can still take inspiration from Kelly Russell's sense of style and incorporate similar motifs into my polymer clay work. Those colors, for instance! Softened brassy gold combined with champagne gold... tinged with purple-- blue-- green, and copper... A good dose of sea green... And don't forget a dash of sunset (oranges and purples) and the soft pastels of seashells... So many of even these metallic colorss can be simulated in regular clay, with the aid of mica clay and mica powders. And of course as far as shapes go, polymer clay can do anything PMC can do. It's only a matter of giving it a try! :o)