Before you start thinking about elaborate pendants, decorated necklaces, simple rings, or cute charms, let's watch Sara, a beginner, at work.

She wanted to make a leaf to hang on a ribbon to decorate a gift. She opened the packet, show in Photo 1, cut off half the clay, and closed the packet. After a little bit of kneading, she had a neat blob, shown in Photo 2.

Using a marker pen, she rolled out the clay on a piece of baking paper, shown in Photo 3, and used a hobby knife to cut the shape, shown in Photo 4.

After the shape was dried with a hairdrier for 5 minutes, it looked like Photo 5. It was cleaned up with some fine wet and dry abrasive, and the hole drilled, as in Photo 6.

It was heated for 10 minutes on a gas ring, at an orange-red heat, shown in Photo 7. And then polished up with a metal polish, as in Photo 8. Later, it was hung on a pink ribbon and used to decorate an anniversary gift.

a new art clay packet

kneaded clay

rolled clay

cut to shape

dried clay

the drilled hole

firing the clay

partly polished

All in all, it was simple: much easier than trying to work with a piece of solid silver from the beginning. Of course, the time you spend refining the shape, adding textures, making patterns, and polishing the piece make a big difference. But you get the idea.