Jewellery designers are taking a shine to a new type of accessory - striking designs made from clay or with wires containing precious metals.

The number of jewellery designers here using one of the techniques, the metal clay method, has jumped three- to four-fold compared to a year ago, say industry experts.

Local jewellery school Jewellery Design & Management International School (JDMIS) saw 623 students enrolling in its metal clay workshops last year - a surge from the total of 298 who took the course from 2000 to 2007.

Most of the silver pieces crafted out of metal clay are sold online or at standalone jewellery stores.

Prices range from $20 for a simple ring to thousands for an elaborate necklace or bracelet.

Most of the pieces are about 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than those made using traditional methods, thanks largely to lower production costs.

Yet their underlying value is identical as the quality of the silver or gold is the same.

Industry experts say the quality of the silver in metal clay is 99.9 per cent pure, which is the same as what big-name retailers are using.

Another plus point is that jewellery makers need to buy only some metal clay, polishing brushes, metal files and a gas torch and they are good to go.

These items can be found at any art supplies store.

A ring made of precious metal, crafted using the traditional way, for example, requires age-old techniques of chipping at silver blocks or heating gold to mould it. This painstaking process can take days.

Metal clay techniques involve using your fingers to mould a clay-like substance. When it is heated with a torch, the embedded silver particles rise to the surface while the water evaporates and binding materials dissolve, leaving behind a piece of almost pure silver.

The entire process takes about an hour, depending on the complexity of the design.

Tanja Manuela Sadow, dean of JDMIS, says: 'Metal clay techniques are 20 times easier and faster than traditional methods and the quality of the final product looks nothing less than what brands like Tiffany & Co. and Cartier are producing.'

Although popular among freelance jewellery designers, this technique has not yet taken off at big-name design houses.

Tiffany & Co. declined to comment and Cartier did not respond by press time.

Sadow says using the metal clay techniques ensures that no two pieces are alike.

Another popular method involves the use of metal wires.

Designer Louise Siahaan, 31, founder of online jewellery store Adorn.sg, charges a few hundred dollars for her trinkets which are made out of gold and silver wires.

She says: 'Using metal wires to fabricate jewellery is highly satisfying as they are fun to manipulate and can form designs which are limited by only one's imagination.'

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This article was first published in Urban, The Straits Times.