Tips and Tricks

Making tiny granulation balls: 

To make granulation balls from metal clay: (the amounts and sizes are arbitrary and may be changed to match the project) 

Roll a sheet of clay 2 cards thick. Cut a number of circles with a cocktail straw. Remove the remainder of the sheet of clay. Put a damp (not sopping) paper towel over the circles.pick up one circle and put it in the palm of your non dominate hand. Use hard pressure to roll a solid ball with your index finger, then switch to your ring finger and very light pressure to make the ball into a perfect sphere. Drop each ball into a container after rolling all the circles into balls. Let dry and store.

To apply dry granules to a dry base: Pick up a granule with tweezers and use 320 sandpaper to develop a flat spot. Re position the tweezers to pick up the ball so it can be easily dipped into slip. Brush a little water onto the base design and place the granule that is being held in the tweezers. Put the tweezers down and use the back of the tweezer handle or your fingernail to press the granule firmly on to the base to make sure it's really connected and not hydroplaning on the slip. 

To apply the dry granules to a fresh/wet base: Pick up a granule with tweezers and dip in water. Press the granule into the malleable clay and use a paintbrush to apply a drop more water onto the setting. Let all the water sink into the clay before you put the piece into or onto a heated dryer.
To use wet granules with wet clay: Make a divot with the back of a paintbrush or a ball burnisher in the wet clay. Make a granule following the directions above. Put a dot of water into the divot. Place the spherical granule in the wet divot. Press the granule lightly with the bristles of the brush to make sure it's actually connected and not hydroplaning on the water.

Alternately: Use fine silver wire to melt snippets of wire into balls with a butane torch. Wire will not automatically bond to metal clay, so you'll need to make a mechanical join by dipping the metal granule in slip and pressing it into fresh metal clay.

To figure shrinkage for enlargements to create a specific size in clay that will shrink to a specific size after firing:
 If shrinkage is 14% the enlarge 16%. The formula is 1-0.14 = 0.86
1/.86 = 1.16. Therefore enlarge by 116%
Or - in plain English - 
(1) minus .14 = .86 
(1) divided by .86 = 1.1627907
Enlarge by 116%.