Precious Metal Clay (PMC) is a versatile, easy to use material developed in the early 1990's by Mitsubishi.  PMC consists of microscopic particles of silver mixed with a water based binder which has the feel and working properties of modeling clay.  Using very simple tools it is easy to shape and texture the clay to form pieces of jewellery and after drying the piece is fired to burn away the binder and the particles fuse together resulting in a piece of fine silver jewellery.  It is possible to fire PMC using a small butane torch or a kiln.

PMC is also availabe in gold and in recent years base metal clays have also been developed - copper, bronze, steel and white bronze, though most of these need to be fired in a kiln.