The process started with me opening a tiny packet of silver clay and beginning to soften the lump with my hands to mould and shape it.  I always try to get everything out on my work bench first as the working time isn’t very long and as each pack is so expensive it is important not to let any go to waste. But I am sure I am not the only person who seems to develop workbench blindness and inevitably each time I make something I hunt for a tool - only to discover it was there on the workbench all along!

For the dinosaurs I used Project X Fine Silver Clay., I use a mixture of Project X and Art Clay in my work, depending on what I am making. In this case I wanted to utilise the high shrinkage of Project X Clay to get smaller dinosaurs.

Once the clay was more malleable I rolled it out to the required thickness, using coloured spacers (my spacers were from Metal Clay) .to help keep the depth consistent before using my tiny dinosaur cutters to create pairs that were as identical as possible. With some designs I make my own stamps or use a needle tool to cut out the shape freehand.

Here I am cutting out a Stegosaurus! The edges needed a lot of refining to get a neat shape after the photo.

After firing the silver actually looked white, in fact silver only starts to look shiny once you begin to burnish it. 

The first step after firing was to brush it with a wire brush – not good when wearing nail polish! 🙄 Followed by lots and lots of polishing to get a high shine. 

I sought the opinions of some palaeontologist pals on the shapes and which dinosaurs they most closely resembled. I still remember being fascinated by dinosaurs as a child if you know any children they will quite possibly have the best knowledge going. However, we decided that I have crafted I have four different dinosaurs. – the Roarsome T-Rex, 🦖 a spiny Stegosaurus, a Diplodocus with its iconic shaped head 🦕 and a horned Triceratops. . (If you want to find out more about any of these then The National History Museum in London is a good place to start, they have lots of info online too.)

As these dinosaurs were destined to become stud earrings I finally had to solder the earring backs on using a small blow torch, before I cleaned and polished them once more, to get the pretty look you see below.

Do you know anyone that loves dinosaurs? These could make the perfect gift for them, or perhaps you like the idea yourself. I have some matching pairs in stock online or you can order your very own mismatched pair, deciding which two dinosaurs to feature. .

I hope you enjoyed reading about the process.

Esther 🦖