Silver cufflinks are one of the few pieces of men's jewellery that are almost always chosen for someone rather than by them, which is exactly why a handmade pair lands so well. They are also, quietly, one of the most sensible projects in silver clay: two small flat faces, no sizing to worry about, and nothing structural to get wrong. If you have been looking for a first project that is not a ring, this is it.
How silver cufflinks are put together
A cufflink is two parts: the decorative face that shows, and the fitting behind it that passes through the cuff. Most fittings are a swivel bar on a short post, because it folds flat to go through the buttonhole and then turns to lock. You make the face; the fitting is a standard component you buy.
That split is what makes cufflinks such a good silver clay project. All the creative work happens in the part you can shape by hand, and the mechanical part is solved for you. You are not engineering a hinge, you are making two matching medallions.
Making the faces
Roll the clay to an even thickness and cut two identical shapes. Circles and rounded squares are traditional, roughly 15 to 18 millimetres across, though there is no rule. Cut both at the same time from the same rolled sheet so they match, and keep them a little thicker than you think you need, because a cufflink face gets knocked against desks and steering wheels.
Then decide what goes on them. Initials pressed with letter stamps are the obvious choice and the most requested. Texture works just as well: linen, a fingerprint, or the grain of a piece of wood pressed into the damp clay. A small cubic zirconia can be set into the face before firing if you want a point of light, since it is made to survive the flame.
Remember the shrinkage
Silver clay shrinks by roughly 8-10% as it fires. On a ring that matters enormously; on cufflinks it mostly matters for proportion. Cut the faces a touch larger than the finished size you have in mind, and if you are stamping letters, keep them well inside the edge so the shrink does not crowd them.
Drying, firing and finishing
Let both pieces dry fully, then tidy the edges with a sanding pad while they are still in the dry, chalky stage. Silver clay is torch-firable, so a handheld butane torch does the job. Once the binder has burned away you are left with 99.9% fine silver, which is one of the reasons cufflinks made this way age well: fine silver resists tarnish far better than sterling.
Brush the fired pieces with a stainless steel brush for a satin finish, then burnish the raised areas if you want contrast. On a stamped face, that contrast is what makes the letter readable across a table.
Attaching the fittings
Cufflink backs are sold as blanks with a flat pad, and the usual method is to bond the fired silver face to that pad with a strong two-part jewellery epoxy. Roughen the back of the silver first so the adhesive has something to grip, keep the pad centred, and leave it clamped or taped while it cures properly rather than testing it after ten minutes.
If you would rather avoid glue altogether, you can build a small loop into the back of the face while the clay is soft and fire it as one piece, then link it to a fitting. It takes more planning but it is entirely silver.
What you need to start
Beyond the cufflink backs, everything else is standard silver clay kit. The silver clay starter kit includes the clay, a torch, tools, a cubic zirconia and instructions, and ships worldwide with duties covered. If you have not worked with the material before, how to use silver clay walks through the basic sequence from rolling to firing.
A pair of silver cufflinks takes an afternoon, uses very little clay, and produces something that gets worn to weddings for decades. For a first gift made in real silver, there are few better places to start.
