BronzClay is easy to work with: you can shape it in minutes, dry it quickly with a hair drier, fire it in your kiln, and polish it with toothpaste. 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, 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.

BronzClay is a composite clay-like material, made from fine bronze powder and a harmless organic binder. When 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.

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.

The firing temperature and time are important: metal clay has to sinter, not melt. There's a difference between sintering and melting. During sintering, metal powders bond to produce solid metal, but don't melt. During melting, metals become liquid and lose their original shape.

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. Charcoal made from coconut shells produces a natural bronze colour, but charcoal made from coal produces a colourful range of patinas.

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.

Compared to SilverClay, BronzClay is inexpensive, and better for larger stronger pieces. For example, a bronze bangle would be stronger than a silver bangle. Although you can use a small kiln, the long firing time makes it more economic to fire a collection of pieces at the same time in a larger kiln, such as the Paragon Xpress E-12A.

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 in the US.

The Paragon Xpress E-12A, made for Cherry Heaven, is a mixed-media kiln that can use a regular mains socket. It's a 1230°C, 2700W, four-sided, rectangular, firebrick, front-opening kiln, with a digital programmer.

The Paragon Xpress E12A is suitable for most materials and processes, particularly those needing a very long, high temperature, firing sequence. It's ideal for BronzClay as it's large enough for the necessary charcoal-filled container.

The outer steel case measures 347mm x 521mm x 510mm, and is slotted for air circulation: so it keeps cool. The firebrick firing chamber measures 205mm x 305mm x 221mm internally, and heats from both sides and the back, with the fast firing elements lying in grooves in the 64mm thick bricks.

It's available with a bead-annealing door, a heat-resistant glass viewing-window, or a bead-annealing door and a heat resistant glass viewing-window, making it very versatile.

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

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

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 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.

The Paragon Xpress E-12A.

Stainless Steel Containers.

This product is in the on-line shop, so use the shop link below the menu bar near the top of the page. Alternatively, visit the Cherry Heaven Shop in Corfe Castle village.

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 start link below the menu bar near the top of the page, then choose club.

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.

Cherry Heaven is an EU distributor for Paragon Kilns made in the US, 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 made in the US, and an EU distributor for AccentGold For Silver paint and Metal Clay Veneer, both made in the US.

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, and SilverClay, 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.