Precious Metal Clay

'Precious Metal Clay or PMC is a plasticene-like precious metal compound developed in the early 1990s in Japan by metallurgist Dr. A. Morikawa. Success was first achieved with Gold, and later duplicated with silver. The material is modelled into the desired shape, and then kiln-fired; whihc burns off the carrier, leaving only the pure metal. Some shrinkage occurs, but this has been exploited by artisans as it allows very fine detail to be achieved. Mitsubishi Materials has developed two additional versions of silver called PMC+ and PMC3, whihc fire at lower temperatures and display less shrinkage. A 22k gold coating material (Aura 22), and a 22k yellow gold alloy are also manufactured.

The material was originally imported into North America by only one company, Rio Grande, which sponsored a number of workshops and symmposia, and started the PMC Guild, which have lead to relatively fast acceptance of the material into the western market.

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