Bronze Clay is easy to work with: you can shape it in minutes, dry it quickly with a hair drier, and fire it in your kiln. You start with soft clay and end up with real solid bronze: ready to wear, give, or sell.

You can design and make your own unique necklaces, torcs, bracelets, earrings, charms, keepsakes, anklets, brooches, beads, rings, ornaments, and seasonal decorations.

You can add bronze clasps and pins to clothes, overlays to gift cards, motifs to handbags, highlights to wood, ceramics, glass, and shells, and produce complex shapes and patterns from moulds.

To look at the photos, hold your mouse over the zoom buttons below. The photos are 480px x 360px and about 40KB so, if you're not on a fast internet connection, they'll take a short while to download.

Celtic Bronze Torc.

Bronze Mask By Gordon Uyehara.

Bronze Bracelet By Celie Fago.

For over 5500 years, bronze has been used for containers, tools, weapons, ceremonial symbols, decorations, jewellery, and clasps and pins, so BronzClay is ideal for Celtic or Roman designs, primitive styles, bangles, bowls, and figures.

BronzClay is a composite clay-like material, made from fine bronze powder and a harmless organic binder. As it's fired, the binder vapourises and the metal powder sinters, leaving solid bronze: an alloy of 89% copper and 11% tin. During firing, small amounts of non-toxic carbon dioxide and water vapour are released: so it's safe to use at home.

Compared to SilverClay, BronzeClay is inexpensive, and better for larger stronger pieces. For example, a bronze bangle would be stronger than a silver bangle.

There are two makes of bronze clay: Prometheus Bronze Clay made by Odak, and BronzClay made by Metal Adventures. They're clay-like materials made from fine bronze powder and a harmless water-based organic binder. However, they're fired in different ways:

Prometheus Bronze Clay is easy to fire: put your dried pieces on a kiln shelf and programme the temperature and hold time. Several shelves can be stacked to make better use of your time: so you might want more than one furniture kit.

BronzClay is fired in a special way: your work needs to be firmly embedded in activated charcoal granules in a stainless steel container and covered with a lid. The container for the SC2 and SC3 measures 162mm x 176mm x 100mm, and holds 1 litre of charcoal.

To fire larger pieces, or more pieces at the same time, you'll need a larger kiln, such as the Paragon Xpress E-12A. The stainless steel container for the E-12A measures 265mm x 162mm x 152mm and holds 3 litres of charcoal.

The Xpress E12A is over three times larger inside than the FireFly. To learn more about the Xpress series kilns, use the main menu link below the menu bar near the top of the page, then choose Xpress.

If BronzClay is exposed to oxygen during firing, metal oxides are created which hinder the firing. To minimize this, it's embedded in activated charcoal granules in a stainless steel container and covered with a lid. Charcoal made from coconut shells produces a natural bronze colour, but charcoal made from coal produces a colourful range of patinas.

The firing temperature and time are important: metal clay has to sinter, not melt. There's a difference between sintering and melting: during sintering, the binder in the clay vapourises and the metal powder particles bond to produce solid metal whereas, during melting, the metal powder particles liquify and lose their original clay-shape.

Firing bronze clay is a two-part process: a short low-temperature segment to prepare the kiln's atmosphere, followed by a long high-temperature segment to sinter the alloy.

Comprehensive instructions are included with the product, although you could do a one-day course at The Kitiki Studio. BronzClay has been developed by Bill Struve and is made by Metal Adventures in the US.

The stainless steel containers come in two sizes: the smaller one measures 162mm x 176mm x 100mm and holds 1 litre of charcoal, and the larger one measures 162mm x 265mm x 152mm and holds 3 litres of charcoal.

The smaller one will fit in several of the smaller kilns, such as the Paragon SC2, Caldera, Xpress E9A, and Xpress E10A, but make sure it doesn't touch the thermocouple at the back of the firing chamber. The larger one has been made for the Xpress E-12A: a firebrick kiln suited to continual high temperatures.

If you want to use both types of charcoal, it's much easier to have two containers: one for each. This saves cleaning and storing, especially as both types look similar.

As a container full of hot charcoal will take a long time to cool completely, a second container will allow you to prepare the next batch of work. Whilst working with the charcoal, be careful not to stir up the dust and breathe it in.

To learn more about working with metal clays, buying and using kilns and tools, or choosing a course, transfer to The Art Clay Club, using the The Art Clay Club link above the menu bar near the top of the page.

The Art Clay Club is an information resource, not a shop, providing free on-line help, 24 7 52: you don't have to register, log on, or remember a password.

The Kitiki Studio provides a comprehensive Art Clay educational programme as classes, masterclasses, workshops, and Art Clay Level 1 and Level 2 teacher-certification courses, as well as classes for related materials and techniques.

Arts and crafts events, introductory workshops, studio open-days, guest-teacher masterclasses, and general jewellery courses, are often added. If you're interested, mail or call.

The Kitiki Studio is an Art Clay UK distributor, an on-line shop, and a learning centre with three Aida-certified teachers. It provides the full Art Clay range: 650 silver clay, original silver, slow dry, slow tarnish, paste, oil paste, overlay paste, syringe clay, paper clay, gold clay, gold paste, gold foil, and cork clay.

The Kitiki Studio on-line shop includes electric kilns, kiln shelves, kiln paper, precision jewellery and craft tools, pliers and cutters, rotary tumblers, magnetic polishers, shot, grit, mini-drills, mandrels, triblets, UK ring guages, files, rollers and spacers, texture sheets, moulds, stones, findings, abrasives, glues, safety equipment, and other tools and accessories.

The Kitiki Studio provides a comprehensive Art Clay educational programme as classes, masterclasses, workshops, and Art Clay Level 1 and Level 2 teacher-certification courses, as well as classes for related products and techniques.

The Kitiki Studio, Electric Kilns, The Art Clay Club, Cherry Heaven, SilverClay, and MetalClay, provide the definitive UK on-line Art Clay knowledge-base and an unrivalled range of clays, kilns, tools, materials, and courses.

The Kitiki Studio is committed to the Art Clay world, so Art Clay is not just a secondary product within an existing polymer clay, glass, or craft business.

To learn more about Art Clay, materials, tools, and courses, transfer now to Kitiki using the Kitiki link above the menu bar near the top of the page.

This is a Cherry Heaven on-line shop and an EU distributor, sales, support, spares, and repair centre for kilns: it's not a bead, ceramics, crafts, glass, or metal-clay shop, selling a few kilns to a market niche.

Although it's an internet resource, you can still mail or call an engineer about kilns, power supplies, home diagnostics, repairs, spares, safety issues, a special project, or reselling opportunities.

This internet resource belongs to Cherry Heaven, a shop in Corfe Castle village near the National Trust Estate. Cherry Heaven sells a diverse selection of exclusive essentials and luxuries.

Cherry Heaven is an EU distributor for Paragon Kilns made in Texas USA, Advance Kilns made in Canada, Efco Kilns made in Germany, Kitiki Mini-Kilns made in Turkey, and UltraLite Kilns made in the US.

Cherry Heaven is a UK distributor for Art Clay made by Aida Chemical Industries in Japan, and BronzClay and CopprClay made by Metal Adventures in the US, and an EU distributor for AccentGold For Silver paint and Metal Clay Veneer, both made in the US. In addition, we resell products by MetalMania,

Cherry Heaven has been commended for an outstanding performance as one of Paragon's top-selling distributors over 2007 to : a pleasing outcome since the UK is one third the area of Texas and one fortieth the area of the US.

The kiln prices include the recommended shelf kit, and the legally-necessary lid or door safety switch where appropriate.

The on-line shop link is below the menu bar near the top of the page. You can buy kilns, kiln shelves, shelf paper, metal clays, glass clays, ceramic blocks and cloths, reminder timers, digital pyrometers, glare-resistant glasses, heat-resistant gloves, fire extinguishers, spare parts, and accessories. Alternatively, visit Cherry Heaven in Corfe Castle village.