Literally, silver paste. I’m not sure if that is what it is called in English. It’s silver in moldable form, like modeling clay. Yesterday I got training in how to mold it and fire it in a kiln.The class was at La Petite Manufacture, a jewelry store in Paris’s 11th arrondissement. (Its back-of-the-shop studio is pictured below.) I drew freehand on the paste with dentist tools. After it was fired I finished it by sanding the sides in an irregular roundness and rubbing an agate polishing wand thing-y over it (about thousand times). This polished the charms without making the surface too even and shiny. The agate tool leaves little dings which result in a more vintage-looking surface.

I went straight from the training to a dinner at a friend’s house. “Cute,” he said when he saw the charms. “What is that–a penis?”