Recycling fired clay

[Metalman]

A CMBeads,
Great Question! so good I made it todays work tip. follow the link below to the bottom of page 3 of Work Tips for 'Using Silver Scrap'
http://www.rings-things.com/cgi-bin....9;st=20

5/26/2004 USING SCRAP SILVER
Okay, so you have been working for a while now and you are starting to have a pile of fired silver pieces that didn't really work out.  What to do?
There are a number of low level casting techniques which you could work out. Carve a design in a charcoal block, put your scrap in, melt it and press a second piece of charcoal down on it to press the molten metal out into your low relief carving - this will give you a relief piece in silver. There are a number of other methods and approaches including cuttlefish molds, sand casting and water casting.  A great reference for further info and details is the TIm McCreight book: The Complete Metalsmith [R&T cat # 62-010].  I highly recommend this book to any one working with jewelry and metals, its a great source of help and inspiration.

[CMBeads]

I made some REALLY poorly thought out pieces during my first art clay silver workshop.  I want to make something from them but only heavy filing will help!  Can I melt the undesirables and if so, what are the guidelines?  Thanks for your help.

[Metalman]

Just another note regarding using old/junk silver, this would include fired Metal Clay items; lumps of unfired clay that you forgot what they were so you can't recycle them into paste; and any other scrap silver [sterling and/or fine] - this might be old rings someone gave you, broken chain; bits and pieces; sawing scrap; those old melt downs; whatever.  It just needs to be sterling or fine silver - you can mix the 2.
There are a number of ways to do casting. Steam and Vacumn casting are cheap to set up and do.  J. Fred Wohl does workshops around the country on this.  Fred is great and so is the workshop. Check it out if you hear of one.
There is a good section on casting in The Complete Metalsmith by Tim McCreight  [cat # 62-010],  pgs 84 - 102