MEDACreations.com
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MED'A Creations Home Page
Description
PMC Standard, PMC+, and PMC3 are materials developed by Mitsubishi Materials Company. Composed of fine silver particles, organic binder and water, these products have the working characteristics of clay. The user can shape them in his or her hands, using simple hand tools. After shaping and drying the pieces, they are fired in a kiln. The heat of the firing burns off the binder and causes the silver powder to fuse, leaving solid silver. The firing process is such that there is little or no change in the shape of the objects, only a reduction in size. PMC is also available in a 24 Carat Gold clay and a 22 Carat Gold paste.
Precious Metal Clays provide the artist user with a new way to create objects of pure silver and gold. These materials take advantage of the easy working characteristics of clay. They allow the artist to form shapes that would be difficult and time consuming to make using traditional silversmithing techniques.
Composed primarily of precious metal particles (either fine silver or gold), these materials receive their plasticity from the organic binder and water that hold the metal particles together. The proportions of metal, binder and water differ between among the different types of PMC, with a greater percentage of metal in the PMC+ and PMC3 than in the Standard clay. These factors affect the rate of shrinkage and firing time. Standard PMC shrinks about 30% and takes 2 hours to fire. PMC+ shrinks about 12% and fires in as little as 10 minutes. PMC3 also shrinks 12%, but is made up of smaller particles and fires at temperatures as low as 1110F. PMC 3 is the strongest of the silver clays. Each successive generation of the clay costs about 10% more than the previous version. All three generations of the clay are still available.
