Jewellery Cleaning
You have bought or have been given a lovely piece of jewellery and of course you wish to keep it looking great. Unfortunately when jewellery (especially silver) is exposed to the air in the course of time it will tarnish. Constant handling can also cause tarnishing as the acids in our skin can cause discolouration. It is therefore recommended that you store your jewellery away from the harmful influence of the atmosphere. It is best to store it in individual boxes or in separate compartments of trinket/jewellery boxes. If you wish to keep several items together, it is advisable to wrap each one in some acid free tissue paper so they don’t scratch each other. You also need to be careful not to spray perfume near your silver jewellery or this too could damage it, so too will contact with deodorant and hairspray.
Jewellery cleaning is often something which we do not do as regularly as we should. If you want to keep your jewellery looking like new, jewellery cleaning is very important.
The most often asked question is “how to clean silver jewellery”. There are various methods which can be used for cleaning your silver jewellery. First of all there are silver cleaning cloths, which are used to buff up your silver jewellery. This can be done each time after wearing, to prolong the shiny appearance of the item before tarnishing sets in. These silver polishing cloths are a fairly simple way of cleaning silver.
You can also use a silver dip, but jewellery items should only be put into this for a very short time and then thoroughly rinsed in fresh water. This is very effective for heavily tarnished items. When the item is dry, buff it up with a soft cloth. If you use this method for cleaning jewellery which has a tarnish guard or shield, such as filigree, you must be very careful, as if residues are left on the item of jewellery, this can in time spoil the appearance of your lovely filigree jewellery. This type of jewellery cleaner is usually very effective, but you must be careful to treat it with respect and make sure you don’t let it come into contact with your skin.
Ultrasonic cleaning is another method of how to clean silver jewellery. Normally water or a special cleaning solution is put into the compartment of the sonic cleaner and the item of jewellery is left in it for a short while before regaining its old shine.
There are other types of jewellery cleaner, not just silver cleaner that can be applied using a cloth and then rubbed off to bring back the shine. Some of these cleaners are specialised for polishing gold jewellery, or pearls, or crystal jewellery in general.
For storing items of costume jewellery which do not tarnish so easily, these can either be stored as for silver jewellery above, or you can hang necklaces and bracelets up, for example on a jewellery stand, so that there is less risk of them scratching other pieces and they can stay looking lovely for longer.
Don’t be put off silver jewellery just because it tarnishes, there are many ways to help keep it in pristine condition. The important thing to remember is to clean your jewellery often; the longer an item is left the more difficult it will be to clean the item.
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