Real 22K gold, in the form of clay; this really is the most precious metal clay you'll be working with!
Art Clay water-based gold clay, sometimes called metal clay or precious metal clay, is made by Aida Chemical Industries in Japan: it's a composite clay-like material, made of 95% 22K gold and 5% water-based binder. As gold clay is fired, the binder is burnt off and the metal powder sinters, leaving pure 24 kt gold - not a plating or something looking like gold. It gives you a beautiful, soft yellow gold. This soft clay is very easy to use in lump form or can be turned into paste by adding a little water.
This gold can be hallmarked as 22 karat gold, once fired it is 91.7% gold and 8.3% silver.
To save gold, you can shape the gold clay around a form or cork clay to create a hollow shapes - a hollow gold cabochon shape is very effective set with a silver clay bezel.
This precious metal clay needs to be fired in a kiln. Once the piece is completely dry, the piece is fired at 990c for a hold time of 60 minutes. Don't remove from the kiln until it is below 600c (and take care if removing hot things from a kiln).
The piece can then be finished and polished using a brush & burnisher.
You can also turn it into paste and decorate your silver clay - simply paint a layer of silver paste on the unfired silver item, follow by several thin coats of the gold paste. Leave to dry and fire at a high temperature with a torch for about 7 minutes.
Art Clay gold products come from 100% recycled gold which has been extracted from scraps of industrial use (ie. electric parts, plating), jewellery and dentistry. It is not sourced from conflict mines.
Aida Chemical Industries Co. Ltd is recognised as Conflict-free Smelters which conforms to international guidelines set by CFSI (Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative).
