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Patrice Baker turns metal clay into stunning jewellery

November 14, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

A clay-like substance called “metal clay” is precisely that. Silver, copper and bronze each come as a substance that feels very much like clay but when molded, fired, and polished, can become beautiful pieces of jewellery.

Patrice Baker, a metal clay artist herself, took time over this past weekend to talk to the Citizen about how this transition happens. She began by telling us that she was a traditional metal smith for many years. She used to do copper etching, which she still does and by which she discovered copper metal clay. 

Excited to find a different medium to work with, she created pieces for display and to wear. Once silver and bronze clay were added to her stock, Baker made double-sided pendants, mostly of silver.

As we were not both in her studio, she concentrated on describing the material: “It is pure silver ground to a powder as fine as flour, mixed with cellulose fibre and water; it is put in a sturdy sealed foil bag and feels like clay. Metal clay has been around for about 30 years,” she said. “Finding it in Canada is not as common as in the US.”

The only source of metal clay in Canada is the Metal Clay Alchemist in Alberta.

Because of the water content, the product is sticky from the package. A lubricant is used in cleaning and Baker has her own.

Put the clay on something textured, was the first instruction. Anything you can do with clay you can do with this. This is the time when you actually form the thing you want to make.

Once completed, the piece has to be left to dry. Once formed and dry, with all the moisture out, now it is very fragile: “potato chip fragile.” Still, there is touching up to do, with some rough edges and these must be filed off. Baker uses a nail file and it can be made nice and smooth or by holding the piece, use very gentle sandpaper on a surface, rubbing as tenderly as with a potato chip, Baker urged, saying, “It’s easy to smooth an edge, being delicate, with very little pressure.”

Firing gets rid of the binder within the clay and can be done with a small torch.

“Could be a creme brulée torch,” she suggested humorously, “for firing small pieces, the size of a quarter or loonie. The binder burns away at the first glow of orange. The idea is to hold your torch until the orange flares. Torching, it is sitting on a fire brick.”

Otherwise, she uses a small jewellers’ kiln, set exactly at the appropriate temperature for the medal. Either way, the piece shrinks about 10 per cent.

Now it is silvery white and needs the polishing process, smoothing the metal to make it reflective. Creativity loves freedom to expand, was Baker’s opinion, adding that a person can inset gems at the beginning that are heat tolerant: good quality diamonds, garnet, rubies, and sapphires. Just about anything can be made, with ways to create one’s own templates, custom design or use patterns that exist for the metal clay world.

She holds metal clay classes in her Fergus studio and tells us, “The most fun thing for me is to have jewellers come.”

Baker loves teaching. For many years, she was a teacher of Grades 7 to 8.

“Teachers are not funded to teach art,” she noted.

When Baker retired, she taught third-level jewellery making for a year at Georgian College in Barrie, including silver metal clay and alternative materials.

Sterling silver for metal clay is typically 96 per cent pure, which is easier to fire. The normal jewellery silver is 92.5 per cent pure.

Baker also teaches etching and “altered books.” These are made of an artist’s sketchbook with a hardcover. The artist makes a number of holes, determining how many and how big or small and then creates a collage in the holes. Ultimately, sheet mica is used as transparent covers to produce an interesting piece of art from the sketchbook. The mica is four to five inches.

Based in Fergus, Baker’s love affair with jewellery began when she was teaching science and art. She had an opportunity to work with “somebody in the real world,” when she was matched with a jeweller in Elora.

“I’m not a teacher,” he told her. “But you can stop in on Saturdays and work and I will tell you what you’re doing.”

She told us, “I did it part time and then kept at it.”

For the April and May 2024 slot at the Headwaters Arts Gallery in the Alton Mill Arts Centre, Baker was invited by Nancy McNabb, a Headwaters artist, to participate in a two-person show called Choice and Chance, where she presented 50 pieces of her new work of “small assemblage wall art pieces.” The success of that show has led her to want to return to Headwaters events.

Asked how she would encourage anyone coming to her for lessons to delve into metal clay, indeed, art at all, she said, “I tell the first thing to a new person, you think you’re not creative. Set that aside, you are.

“And we will find it and you’ll be amazed at what you can make. Most of my clients are women. Remember, everything you do well is because you practiced.” 

To contact Baker, send her an email at patrice@silverfishstudios.ca.

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