In the early 1990s, Dr. M. Morikawa of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC) in Japan led a team of scientists who developed and patented a material known today as Precious Metal Clay (PMC). In Japan, pottery is an art form with deep cultural significance stretching back for over a thousand years. Dr. Morikawa wanted to join jewellery making to ceramics. He reasoned that if he could transform precious metals into a material that could be shaped and finished like clay, then he could touch a resonance that would interest many Japanese artists.
By 1994, PMC was in production in Japan and being marketed there. Mitsubishi felt that the product was ready for export. But was America ready for PMC? They contacted Darnall Burks, an engineer who had been working with the company for several years. Though not a jeweller himself, Darnall's neighbour on Deer Isle in Maine was a well-known jeweller Ronald Hayes Pearson. Ron was intrigued by PMC but has just retired from active studio work. He recommended that Tim McCreight, another American jeweller and teacher might be someone who could advise Mitsubishi on the viability of PMC in the United States. Together these three men conceived and organized an opportunity for fifteen leaders in the crafts to experiment with PMC so they could assess its value. This studio think tank took place at the Haystack Mountain School in Deer Isle, Maine in May, 1995.
Present at Haystack were:
Ron Pearson, Tim McCreight, Jack Prip, John Paul Miller, J. Fred Woell, Pat Flynn, Patty Daunis-Dunning, Mikki Lippe, Eleanor Moty, Sharon Church, Gene Pijanowski, Kim Cridler, Chris Ramsay, Myra Mimlitsch Gray & Micki Lippe.
What was learned was very interesting:
- PMC is an amazingly plastic and versatile material. It can be shaped by hand, folded, moulded, extruded and painted on another surface.
- PMC can be endlessly textured and takes on microscopically fine definition.
- PMC can be mixed with ceramic powders and oxides to assume new shades of colour and a rougher texture.
- PMC can be fired with stones and ceramics. It can be glazed and enamelled.
- PMC fits a wide range of artistic visions but not all. It compliments but does not displace traditional jewellery methods.
Following the Haystack experience, Mitsubishi Materials hired McCreight and Burks to consult with them as they brought PMC to the United States. One of the first requirements was to find an experienced company to sell PMC as the U.S. distributor. Rio Grande in Albuquerque was interested and since 1996 has provided the jewellery community with a professional and helpful source of supply.
A few years later Mitsubishi made arrangement through a Japanese company called Mikuni to create a company called PMC Connection to interface with the retail side of the market.
Several national magazines carried articles about PMC, and Rio Grande introduced the radically new material to its customers through catalogues and presentations at shows. As interest grew, we became aware of a need for teachers. To address this, Mitsubishi hired McCreight in late 1996 to teach five Master Classes to selected teachers. These were held in Maine, Michigan, Texas, Oregon, and New York. In some ways, these classes were to become the template for the certification program that was introduced a few years later.
To further expand the information and shared experiences about PMC, McCreight and Burks saw the need for a newsletter and a web site. As these activities continued to multiply, an organizational structure was needed to contain them all. In the summer of 1999, Burks and McCreight incorporated the PMC Guild.
At the suggestion of Akira Nishio, Manager of the PMC division of Mitsubishi, the Guild worked with Rio Grande (at that time the only US distributor) to create an innovative program that established standards that would insure continuing artistic development of metal clay. The Guild responded by creating a fixed curriculum program called certification. When PMC Connection came into being, they created a complementary program, and today both are authorized by the Guild. Today hundreds of classes are taught each year to thousands of students.
For more information, be sure to look at our Getting Started page.