Suggested Thickness Guidelines

[CatWink]

Are there any suggested thickness guidelines for different types of projects?  Pendants, earrings, rings, lentil beads, bracelets that can be used when beginning to design a new piece?  Would AC Copper use the same thickness guidelines? 
Thanks .

[Polly]

Hi CatWink,

A lot of this (especially pendants and earrings) is simply personal preference. There are so many other variables (strength, shrinkage, design style, etc.), that it's hard to give a reliable list for each category of jewelry. I strongly recommend picking up a couple of metal clay books, to see what they recommend for various specific projects.
We do have some tools to help roll thin items out to consistent thicknesses: #87-054 graduated slat sets. (Click on the image, to see a chart of each color's thickness.)

[CatWink]

Thanks Polly!  I actually did what you suggested when making a lentil bead.  I made it 4 cards thick or 1 mm and it is quite heavy (about 1.75" diameter).  Since it has a front and back side I was trying to determine if it could be thinner without compromising strength.

[Metalman]

Hello Catwink,
Polly  is good on the book recs - most of the types of Items you mention are variable depending on your construction approach. For flat basic items - like a flat chrm or pendant - I usually recommend a minimum of 1 mm at the thinnest points while watching out for long crossing lines that could make a weak line to break across the item.  When you get into something like the lentil bead - because of the curved surface [which lends amazing strength] you may be able to go as thin as .5 mm [or 2 cards] - You will need to test these things to see how thin you can go and still retain durability. A certain amount of the durability will depend on your personal methods - how you join the sides and the methods you use but with only a few experiments or tests you should have a good idea as to what works for you.
Rings need to have some body to them because of the high level of wear and abuse. Earrings, beads, pendants get less wear and tear so heft in construction is less of a concern. Metal clays do not have a lot of flexibility to them so something like a cuff bracelet is best made with structural additions of fine or Argentium  silver. A hinged or linked bracelet would be another matter as the ACS pieces would not need to flex [like in a cuff bracelet]
I have not experimented with the copper and bronze clays much I would expect that the structural problems would be basically the same