Just got back from Lapidary Art Camp for Grown-ups and Some Artistic Minors, aka People Who Have Sworn to Not Burn Themselves With Extreme Fire or Not Maim Themselves With Hammers and Power Tools and Shit. I learned what to do with metal clay. As the name implies, it is clay with metal in it. You take the clay with the metal and make Shapes and then you put it in Kiln Purgatory and hope it stays together and then you put it in Kiln Hell and hope it stays together again. If it doesn't, it gets to go through both stages of Kiln Afterlife again. If it passes the Trials, the clay is gone and you are left with metal.
Got it? Okay, here are my final clay-less metal objects.
This was my first project, because I'm a fucking overachiever and was not content with only using stamp patterns (which I did on the back). I freehanded the front side. Nobody there was an early music nerd enough to translate what piece I wrote on it (it's a courante from Praetorius' Terpsichore, one I've posted a video for here before). This piece got two trips through the kiln because things broke off the first time. This one's in copper.
Another copper pendant, I did stamps for both side of this. They say you can put cubic zirconium onto pieces and send it through the kiln no problem. This is a lie. Only a few kinds will keep their color. This one was opaque white before it got fired.
Copper tapejara that I will probably make into a pin. This one also got two kiln trips.
Tiny dinosaurs! They are standing on little tiny feet. The ankylosaur is in copper and the sauropod is in gold bronze.
A shadow box with a chicken, in gold bronze. Another cubic zirconium that was a different color pre-firing (it was strong yellow). Will probably make this one into a fridge magnet.
Tiny gold bronze leopard gecko pendant, aka I was trying to use up clay scraps.
Fairly large Microraptor pendant, in ruby bronze with gold bronze accents on the outer feathers.
Cat pendant made using stamps, ruby bronze with gold bronze pawprint.
More ruby bronze scrap usage. Koi pendant (stamp pattern on the back, nail art mold casts on the front), tiny halfmoon betta who will never win a show, and a red admiral butterfly that amazingly did not break apart upon firing.
Also I sold one (1) of my cabs at tailgating, which covered about half of what I spent on more slabs at the auction. Don't get addicted to rocks, people.