Stop The Clock

Make time for Ellen Kharade's striking steampunk silver clay set!

Ellen Kharade, MJ Designer

Personalise your jewellery by adding your favourite charms and beads. Odd earrings and broken pendants are also a great way of making bespoke pieces”

Steampunk is a relatively new fantasy genre, which has inspired among other things, innovative jewellery and accessories. The style is quite flamboyant and theatrical, harking back to the romantic Victorian era and mixing science fiction with fantasy and often incorporating mechanical elements. Clock faces, cogs and keys all fit the bill in this project, which combines stamped PMC charms with bought charms and pearls.

Charm Bracelet

1. Roll out a small square of precious metal clay on a Teflon mat to a 2mm thickness. Press a Clocks 4 rubber stamp mat into the clay until you get a good impression of the large clock face, then gently lift away. Allow the clay to firm up for a while, then carefully cut around the shape with a scalpel, incorporating a square at the top of the clock to represent the winder. Make grooves on the winder with the scalpel and form a hole in the centre using a cocktail stick. Leave the piece to dry out in a warm place for several hours.
2. Gently smooth the edges of the clock with fine sandpaper and enlarge the hole with a needle file. Place the piece onto a firing brick and move a hand-held torch over the surface. It will smoke at first as the binder burns off, then begin to glow red. Keep it glowing like this for a minute, as this will ensure a good fire, then leave to cool down completely.
3. Dip a wire brush into a little hand soap and gently scrub away the white coating until the silver beneath is revealed. Mix up a Liver of Sulphur solution following the manufacturer's instructions then dip the clock charm into the solution with tweezers. Once the desired colour change has been achieved, remove from the solution and rinse in fresh water.
4. Using a very fine sandpaper, buff over the clock face until the silver beneath is revealed and the black patination is left behind in the recessed detail. Polish the surface and burnish to a mirror finish. Create a selection of clock face and cog charms from precious metal clay in the same way, varying the designs and sizes as you do so.
5. Cut 7cm of belcher chain, or enough to fit around your own wrist and attach a jump ring at either side, plus a lobster clasp on one end. Attach your PMC charms, plus a selection of ready-made enamelled and metal designs with jump rings, spacing them out evenly along the length.

Kilt Pin

1. Make a large clock face charm from precious metal clay in the same way as the charm bracelet, but omit the winder. Using a cocktail stick, make a hole at the top for hanging and three holes at the bottom. Fire the piece, then patinate with Liver of Sulphur and polish to a mirror finish as before.
2. Cut a small length of fine chain and attach to the central hole at the bottom of the clock face with a jump ring. Add large and small key charms to the other end with another jump ring. Fasten heart and pearl charms either side using jump rings as before. Attach a few links of thicker belcher chain to the middle link on a kilt pin and secure to the clock charm, then add enamelled charms either side.

Pendant

1. Roll out a small amount of precious metal clay to a 2mm thickness and press a Clocks 5 stamp mat on top to make an impression of the cogs. Using a scalpel, trim to a neat square of 2.5cm, then make a hole in two diagonal corners with a cocktail stick.
2. Roll out the leftover clay again, take an impression of one of the smaller cogs and cut the shape out with a scalpel. Leave both pieces to dry out thoroughly and sand any rough edges smooth. Make a little slip from wet clay and stick the cog to the front of the square.
3. Once dry, fire the piece, patinate with Liver of Sulphur and polish to a mirror finish as before. Thread a calotte onto a 50cm length of nylon-coated wire, followed by a crimp bead. Place the crimp inside the calotte and thread the end of Liver of Sulphur and polish to a mirror finish as before. Thread a calotte onto a 50cm length of nylon-coated wire, followed by a crimp bead. Place the crimp inside the calotte and thread the end of the wire back through the finding. Squeeze the crimp secure and close the calotte.
4. Thread 15 powder rose pearls onto the wire, followed by 18 silver beads and 17 pearls, alternating the two. Finally, string another 15 pearls, then another calotte and crimp, securing the end as before. Attach jumps rings to the calottes, plus a fancy hook clasp.
5. Thread a head pin through a fancy silver bead and make a wrapped loop. Attach to the precious metal clay charm with a jump ring, then fasten the completed pendant to the centre of the necklace with another jump ring.