Art Clay Silver Syringe, ACS, PMC, Precious Metal Clay Syringe, Extruder
  
If you haven't tried the metal clay syringe, you are missing a whole world of creating.  Oh and it's not the same clay that comes from the package. I know what you thrifty ebayers are thinking....I'll just go down to the drug store get a syringe, get some clay, poke it in the syringe and tah dah!  WRONG. This clay is a special formula and for the little bit extra it costs/gram it's well worth the pain, agony & defeat of trying to duplicate the RIGHT consistency. Trust me, I'm all about the education. Okay, now that you know we sellers aren't out to rip you off, here is my opinion on why the Metal Clay Syringe is Icing on the Cake.
Sample syringe work

    Silver Smithers for years have been soldering and soldering and doing more soldering to get effects that you can easily get with the metal clay syringe. Intricate weaving, 3 dimensional designs, texture making & drawing are just some of the things you can do with the Art Clay Silver syringe. Okay, if your a Silver smither don't throw a hissy as I still do quite a bit of smithing myself. Between you and I and the artist/jeweler if I want geometric...I smith, if I want organic I metal clay. It's as simple as that for me.

Now that everyone is calm again, lol. Let me take you through the beauty of the Art Clay Silver syringe.

Firstly, what the heck am I talking about a syringe with silver in it. Well if you are asking this question, please look at my auctions or the auctions for other metal clay suppliers. There is lots of information talking about the recycling of silver, blah, blah, the paper binder burn out which leaves you with 99.9% PURE Silver, just like bullion, baby. What the heck is Metal Clay???
This Ebay guide is for those that at least have opened up a pack of metal clay and made something & said wow that was fun, I wanna do it again.

The beauty of the syringe is that it comes pre-loaded.

Let's take a look at this baby!

                         
 Geez, I need to get a new picture...sorry, I'm an artist, but I'm not a photographer.

This is what you get when you open up a prepackage syringe with 3 tip sizes.
Grey tip has the largest hole and will make the thickest extrusion
Green tip is medium &
Blue tip is ittty bitty.
Pop on a tip and your ready for action!

Now here is the best part

You don't have to use your syringe in one sitting!

In fact, I've had dry spells where I haven't created a piece in nearly 2 months and my syringe still works. All you have to do is set your syringe tip side down in a cup or container with a water level that goes up to about 1/2 way up the syringe.
It's so easy its scary. I love my syringe, can't do a project without it. Always, always have my syringe.

Now that we know its worth the money & it won't dry out forever. How does it work?

Everybody after a while gets their own technique, but initially here is the best way to work it.
Pretend you are a small infant holding a fork for the very first time. Same grip you use to shake up a can of spray paint. Or the way you pipe icing on a cake. In fact icing a cake with a cake decorator is an INEXPENSIVE way to practice your techniques.
Now that you have grasped your syringe, move your thumb to the top of the plunger. Gently extrude the clay. Touch down on your project (use a pencil to mark your piece like a drawing if you like), now for the tricky part, gently move your arm while depressing the plunger of the clay. If you pull quicker than you extrude your lines will be thinner and longer. If you extrude faster than your arm moves you'll end up with puffy thick lines. Practice a little on a teflon sheet before work on your project. The syringe does require a fair amount of practice, so whip up some icing or buy some of the premade icing and get baking.
Oh, this brings me to another thrifty ebay buyer overlooked product Art Clay Silver PASTE.
All left over syringe can be put into the paste jar and recycled SAVING YOU even MORE MONEY, cool, huh!!!

IMPORTANT: make sure all of your finishing touches: sanding, smoothing & repair work is completely finished.
It is impossible to try to sand in between syringe lines (you will just break it off).

Also Important: let areas dry so you don't put finger marks or rub it off in your decorating/building frenzy.
REMEMBER - put that syringe BACK IN the water, always, always, always put that syringe back in the container of water.

Samples of syringe work

Have fun creating. If you don't believe me with about the consistency thing at the top of this guide or you think I don't use syringes.....check back later and I'll have a picture of my empty syringes from just this year, lol.

OKAY, secret stuff.....

Here's the skinny - First timers....buy the syringe with the green tip only. (Oh I probably don't have one listed. Why? Because I'm also not a great planner, oppps). Check back later or visit my other Art Clay Silver friends right here on Ebay!!!

Why just the green tip you ask ?
Well the blue one which can create beautiful detail is possibly the most frustrating and disappointing tip in the pack. If you live in a dry climate the little vein of metal clay silver that comes out starts to curl, Curl, CURL. Wet climate - Don't have a clue I live in dry Alberta, the place where dinosaurs went to die (someone from Florida - email me with your thoughts). Also, when your piece is finished if you didn't get your little silver vein to fully adhere to your piece...brush, brush, brush -  OH NO a piece fell off, well back to silver smithing.

Just in case you haven't guessed by now, I'm trying to be funny. If I'm not coming across as funny, then I'm probably coming off as bitter. Well guess what? I'm both - depending on who you ask. Plus you should see the size of my silver clay pile that needs to be melted and cast into something, anything (oh that's on my to do list). Okay, I'm almost done, you can make it.

Furthermore the grey one while very cool, uses a ton of syringe silver. Can get costly, plus you might run out before your project is finished.

Clean your tips for future use, so that you just need to buy refill syringes.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, if so, please check that it was helpful & I'll write some more about the wonderful world of Precious Metal Clay.