Art Clay, before it's dried, cuts easily. After it's dried or fired, you can use a range of tools to shape your piece. However, good tools make it easier. Poor tools leave marks, uneven surfaces, and may break dried clay.

You'll enjoy using good tools rather than continually improvising. They'll help you manage a creative and efficient work environment. And they'll last a long time.

You can't buy jewellery tools easily in the high street or from a catalogue. Kitiki has tested hundreds of tools from around the world to make sure that you get the best.

KNIVES

CUT THE CLAY

Art Clay, before it's dried, cuts easily. Using a good-quality modelling knife with sharp blades, you can divide up the clay, cut out shapes, trim off excess, cut the paper type, and generally refine your work.

Don't use a regular DIY knife: it's too clunky for delicate work; the blade will be too big and the clay will stick to it; and it won't be sharp enough so the clay may tear leaving a ragged edge.

If you want to keep your blades handy, use a magnetic strip. However, blades are small and very sharp so are always a potential danger.

The knife included in the Kitiki Kits is a precision modelling tool, and should last a long time. The surgical steel blades push into the handle, which has a knurled rotating collar and rubber collet to grip the blade firmly. It accepts international standard surgical knife blades.

MAGNETIC STRIPS

MAGNETIC STRIP

Knife blades and drill bits can be kept on a magnetic strip. The strip can just lie on your worktop or be fixed to another surface using contact glue or double-sided tape. Before sticking the strip, check which side is more magnetic.

It keeps them in a safe place, drills don't roll onto the floor, and blades are easier to pick up than when they're lying flat. Silver is not magnetic, so the strips won't attract clay offcuts or filings.

The magnetic strip included in the Kitiki Kits is 100mm x 10mm, although we may be able to supply special sizes if you mail or call. The strips are cut on an industrial guillotine, so would soon blunt the blade of your modelling knife.

SYRINGE NOZZLES

NOZZLES

The Art Clay syringe includes a nozzle. However, it's useful to have spares to cut into different sizes and shapes. They can be cut with a modelling knife. The Kitiki nozzles include a soft plastic thread which is used to clean the nozzles.

Whilst you're working, even over several days, keep the syringe nozzles in water to stop the clay drying. Dab them dry on lint-free cloth just before use.

BRUSHES

BRUSH UP YOUR SKILLS

Art Clay can be reshaped and smoothed with a wet brush. The brush is also useful for applying paste to stick pieces together, and smoothing the join.

Whilst you're working, keep the brush tips under water to stop the clay hardening. Dab them dry on lint-free cloth just before use. Don't use a pot of water as a permanent home for brushes: it will soon ruin them.

Brushes can be washed in luke-warm detergent, rinsed, and dried naturally. Whilst still damp, gently reshape the tip. Don't put them in the dish-washer or use a hair drier.

Use good quality brushes. Cheap brushes will form a vee as you brush, leaving a pattern, and shed hairs which will be difficult to remove. The brushes included in the Kitiki Kits are artist-quality sable, and should last a long time.

SCRIBERS

SCRIBERS

When working with clay, you can use a scriber to: make a tiny mark for a drill, a cut, or a position; clean up delicate shapes; or make a decorative pattern. The hardened tips will also mark plastics, silver, gold, copper and most other metals.

The double-ended scriber included in the Kitiki Kits is a precision tool with hardened tips, so should last a long time. The tips are accurately ground, so much better than working with cocktail sticks and matches.

FILES

SCRIBERS

Needle files are used by engineers, craftworkers, jewellers, metalsmiths, and modelmakers, to shape surfaces, clean up edges, and refine details. Art Clay, dried but not fired, files easily. Art Clay, fired, files like solid silver.

A selection of file shapes, such as flat, tapered, round, half-round, square, and triangular, allows you to model the surfaces and refine intricate shapes.

Very few shops sell jewellery tools, so you may decide to buy a complete set of engineering files instead. Before you do, here are some general comments:

Engineering files are designed to rough-shape: they're often called first-cut. Jewellery files, often called second-cut, are about half the size, have much finer teeth, and are precision engineered for delicate work.

Generally, Asian imports use regular steel, inadequately hardened. They're often rebranded, repackaged, and repriced: so it's hard to know what you're getting.

Tests on bright metal show that the file surfaces are uneven, with irregular teeth. The files leave scratches on softer materials, such as silver, gold, and copper, which may be hard to remove.

If you look closely at the ends, the files look as though they've just been snapped off a long strip: the handle tip is sharp to hold, so it will cut your palm, and the file tip is unfinished, making detail-work difficult.

The Kitiki files are German-made chrome-vanadium. The set consists of the six basic shapes: flat, tapered, round, half-round, square, and triangular. They're about 140mm long, easy to use, and comfortable to hold.
The advantage of buying the Kitiki files is that we supply the different shapes which ordinary hardware shops rarely have.

USING FILES

File teeth are designed to cut on the push. Use long strokes as it's easier to smooth out surfaces. If you're filing dried Art Clay, tap the file on your hand to stop the clay powder clogging the teeth.

Jewellery files are not designed to file spring steel or stainless steel wire or strips. If you want to work with these, or other hard materials, you probably need to use a rotary grinding disc.

MANDRELS

SIZING IT UP

Wooden mandrels are used to support your ring, whatever its size, whilst you work on it. Remember that Art Clay shrinks slightly on firing, so make the ring proportionally oversize.

The Kitiki wooden mandrels are imported from Japan and are made from smooth tapered dowel. They're 375mm long, so easy to work with, wherever your ring is positioned.

Always hold the mandrel with the thinner end at the top, so your ring doesn't fall off. When you clean the mandrel, use a wet cloth, but don't soak the wood.

Some mandrels come on a stand. However, the stand is narrow and overbalances easily if the work table is knocked: probably denting fresh clay or cracking dried clay.

TWEEZERS

EZEE TWEEZERS

At Kitiki, we use and sell tweezers with a built-in magnifier to check that the gemstones are aligned properly. They're 84mm long, so an easy size to work with.

Even if you have good eyesight, it's easy to rush because the glue is drying, and notice later that the stone is at an angle or off-centre.

TRIBLETS

SIZING IT UP

Metal triblets are used to adjust the size and shape of finished rings, usually by tapping the ring with a nylon hammer. They're tapered to help you change the ring size progressively, rather than in steps. To use one, you need to know which ring size you are, so you'll need a ring guide.

The Kitiki triblets are made in the UK from smooth tapered steel. They're 330mm long, so easy to work with, wherever your ring is positioned.

Always hold the triblet with the thinner end at the top, so your ring doesn't fall off. If you've never used a triblet before, it'll feel strange hammering the ring you've just made. So, take it easy. Always use a plastic, nylon, or hide hammer to avoid making little flat areas where you tap. When you clean the triblet, use a wet cloth, and dry it straight away.

HAMMERS

EVERYTHING LOOKS LIKE A NAIL

A nylon-headed hammer is useful for straightening wires and strips, and tapping rings on a mandrell to make them more circular. It's not easy to find small jeweller's nylon hammers in the high street: most are too heavy and too large. The Kitiki hammers are imported from Japan and are just the right size.