Cleaning Silver

Here's an easy way to clean sterling silver jewelry that has gotten a little tarnished: Put a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of a bowl. Place the jewelry on top of the foil. Cover the jewelry and aluminum foil with not quite boiling hot water, and add baking soda. I've heard it works even better if you add a little salt. The baking soda should bubble, and when it stops bubbling, the tarnish should be gone. To get silver really shiny, use a polishing cloth after cleaning. I use Sunshine brand cloths (which I also sell) but there are many silver polishing cloths on the market that will work. Goddard brand silver cloths are high-quality polishing cloths that can sometimes be found at shops selling beauty supplies or jewelry cleaners. I do not recommend using commericial silver dips to remove tarnish from jewelry that is not exclusively sterling silver. The reason for this is that the chemicals in many of these products can damage pearls and other common jewelry materials, including some stones. While I can't guarantee that the baking soda/aluminum foild method is safe for all jewelry materials, it is definitely safer for most common jewelry materials than using harsh chemicals.