ARTEMIS JEWELRY Martha Spaulding started exploring the art world later in life and tried several different mediums before discovering precious metal clay. It was love at first try. Although she still works with different mediums, jewelry remains one of her favorites. She spent most of her adult life in Colorado and now resides in New Hampshire. Her work is often based on nature which comes from her love of the outdoors. She appreciates the many beautiful patterns that are found in nature and often incorporates that into her jewelry.
Artist’s statement:
Precious metal clay (PMC) is a clay-like medium used to make jewelry, beads and small sculpture. It consists of very small particles of precious metals (such as silver, gold or copper) mixed with an organic binder and water. Metal clay can be shaped just like any soft clay, by hand or using molds. After drying, it can be fired in a variety of ways including in a kiln, with a handheld gas torch, or on a gas stove. The binder burns away, leaving the pure metal. Shrinkage of between 8% and 10% occurs (depending on the product used), but this is exploited by artisans to produce very fine detail. Silver metal clay results in objects containing 99.9% pure silver – aka fine silver.
