For my Grandmother's 70th Birthday, I made her a sterling silver necklace in my PMC class. PMC stands for Precious Metal Clay. It is 99.97% silver (Sterling) particles that have been suspended in rice paste (aka Mochi!). You can sculpt it like clay and fire it in a kiln where the mochi burns off and just leaves the silver. Then you polish and tumble it 'til the silver shines.
This design was made from a real leaf that I imprinted into a piece of the PMC 3. I set a stone and made a bail (loop) that looks like the stem folded over. When polishing, I added a patina of sulfur oxide (it smelled like rotten eggs, but it gave it a goldish tone).
My mom gave me a chain to go with the pendant. My Grandma loved it and she wears it all the time.
