Care for your jewelry
Posted by Administrator on May 13, 2007
It’s been a while since I last wrote about caring for jewelry - and since I use a lot of silver and pearls in my work, it seems appropriate to mention how to care for these materials.
The key to preventing tarnish on silver is keeping it clean, and storing it sealed off from air, humidity, and chemicals. Anti-tarnish cloth lining in jewelry boxes also helps.
The key to caring for pearls is to avoid contact with chemicals and anything acidic. Pearls are beautiful, but delicate, and can be damaged by seemingly innocent things like hairspray, so keep pearls clean, but avoid using chemical cleaners on them.
My favorite way to store silver jewelry is in plastic zip-lock baggies. Since I have a lot of jewelry - most of it stock that I take to art and craft shows or deliver to the stores and galleries that sell my work - I need a solution that keeps my jewelry from tarnishing but also doesn’t take up much space. Plastic bags are the perfect solution. Tupperware-style containers also work well. Pearl jewelry should be cushioned, so I recommend anti-tarnish cloth pouches for silver and pearl jewelry, especially if it is stored in a box with other jewelry items that could scratch the surface of the pearls.
Another thing that helps, and don’t ask me why, is to put a small piece of aluminum foil inside the container you use to store your silver.
It might work for the same reasons this simple recipe helps to remove light tarnish from silver jewelry (and is one of the *only* safe cleaning methods for pearl jewelry):
In a bowl, place a piece of aluminum foil. Put your jewelry on top of the foil so that the silver is touching the foil. Sprinkle baking soda on top, and add hot water. Swish the water around for a few minutes, then remove the jewelry and dry with a soft cloth.
Another useful cleaning tip: wipe silver with a polishing cloth after wearing it, and if your jewelry comes in contact with sweat, perfume, hair products, or other cosmetics, it doesn’t hurt to rinse it in lukewarm water and dry with a soft cloth. Then don’t forget to store it away from air and moisture to keep it looking shiny and new!
Some don’ts:
*don’t put on your jewelry until you are finished styling your hair, doing your make-up, etc. Chemicals in beauty products can accelerate tarnishing, and damage pearls and some gemstones
*don’t get salad dressing on your pearls. Seriously - vinegar, which is a common ingredient in salad dressing, will damage pearls. If you do spill on your pearls, rinse them in warm water and dry with a soft cloth.
*don’t keep jewelry in the bathroom - it’s the most humid part of your house, and an area that usually has the most chemicals (in the form of cosmetic products and household cleaning products, which can damage jewelry).
*remove silver and pearls before cleaning your house - again, the chemicals can damage pearls and accelerate tarnish on silver.
*don’t use a silver dip on jewelry that contains pearls, shell, stones, and other non-metal materials. Silver dips are really intended only for silver - try the baking soda and hot water rinse for jewelry that combines silver and other materials - it’s much safer, if not quite as instant.
I’m gradually transitioning from using standard sterling silver to Argentium sterling silver and fine silver, both of which are less prone (though not immune) to tarnish. I hope that by using these alloys, my jewelry will be easier to care for, so although Argentium and fine silver are slightly more expensive than sterling silver, I think it’s worth it for jewelry that resists tarnish and therefore looks new much longer.
A Note About Argentium Silver
Posted by Administrator on Feb 21, 2007
Argentium silver is my current favorite metal to work with. It resists tarnishing, which means less maintenance for both me and my customers. It also fuses better than traditional sterling silver, which makes a lot of the metalwork I like to do easier.
I just heard that in a recent Lapidary Journal, an article stated that Argentium does not contain copper. This is incorrect - Argentium silver does contain copper (as does traditional sterling silver - copper adds some hardness and durability to silver, which is desirable in finished jewelry) but a little bit of the copper is replaced with germanium. Germanium reacts with the air to form germanium oxide at the surface of the metal, which is what helps slow or prevent tarnish.
The Pearl Book
Posted by Administrator on Jan 24, 2007
The Pearl Book, 3rd Edition: The Definitive Buying Guide: How to Select, Buy Care for & Enjoy Pearls
By Antoinette L. Matlins
This book is the most informative guide to pearls I have read. If you love pearls, this book will give you lots of information on how to determine pearl quality, the kinds of treatments commonly used on pearls, and the difference between natural and cultured pearls, and freshwater and saltwater pearls. It’s not a quick read - there is a ton of information - but it’s very useful for anyone wanting to educate themselves about pearls and the pearl industry. That goes for jewelry makers as well as consumers.
Caring for Freeform Pendants
Posted by Administrator on Sep 15, 2006
I make a lot of sculptural freeform pendants out of sterling silver wire.
Because my designs are ‘open’ in structure, I make a point of using fairly thick wire so that the jewelry won’t easily get pulled out of shape. I have a few other tricks to make the pieces durable, but it is possible to bend them out of shape if they are not properly cared for. A few tips:
- My jewelry won’t bend out of shape if it’s dropped, but it will if you step on it, and might if it snags on something while you are in the crawlspace underneath your home and it’s too dark to figure out how to unsnag it (this actually happened to one of my customers!).
- Store your jewelry in a box when you aren’t wearing it, so that if something heavy happens to fall on it, it won’t get crushed - this is a good idea for all jewelry, by the way, not just sculptural pieces.
- Don’t wear jewelry you love during activities like wrestling and gynmastics, where the possibility of it being squished under you, or worse, pulled off of your body, is high.
- Don’t wear jewelry while showering or using chemical cleaning products or hair products - a lot of people don’t know about this, but the chemicals in household cleaning products and beauty products such as hairspray can react with silver and cause it to tarnish very rapidly. Put on jewelry after you finish doing your hair, and remove it while cleaning, to keep it shiny longer
- Wipe your silver jewelry with a polishing cloth now and then. Besides removing light tarnish and dirt, this helps prevent tarnish from forming.
- If the piece contains pearls, browse the “jewelry care” and “pearls” sections of my blog for tips on caring for pearl jewelry.
Accidents happen of course - but if you use common sense and remove your jewelry during strenuous physical activities, it should last for many years. And if you do accidentally damage a piece of sculptural jewelry that I made, please let me know so that I can fix it for you. I want you to be able to wear my jewelry and enjoy it for a very long time, so I don’t mind helping out occasionally with maintenance.
Cleaning and Caring for Resin Jewelry
Posted by Administrator on Jun 5, 2006
Since resin jewelry is so different from metal jewelry, I thought it would be useful to post a few tips on caring for it.
Resin is a kind of plastic, so it can be cleaned with water and hand soap or dish soap - very easy!
Resin jewelry doesn’t need to be polished. If it starts to look dull or dingy, try cleaning it under running water with a little hand soap. If that doesn’t help, it’s possible that the resin has been scratched, in which case the best way to fix it involves fillling the scratches with more resin. In my experience, scratching has not been a problem, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
I recommend storing resin jewelry wrapped in tissue, a plastic bag, a tissue filled box, or a cloth pouch. This is similar to the way I recommend storing silver, except that with resin, there is no need to worry about keeping it dry and tarnish free, so really any container that will provide a cushion between it and all the other objects in a jewelry box is fine.
Anti-tarnish strips at the hardware store
Posted by Administrator on May 19, 2006
Another hardware store find - anti-tarnish strips. These are little strips of paper that have some kind of chemicals on them that help prevent silver from tarnishing. Storing silver jewelry with one of these in the container, and it should prevent or slow tarnishing for about six months.
There is also a thing called anti-tarnish cloth, sometimes called pacific cloth (no clue why) that also helps prevent tarnish. Sometimes Joanne’s fabrics has this by the yard - it would make a great lining material for jewelry boxes, or even little pouches for storing silver.
Washing Soda source
Posted by Administrator on May 4, 2006
A while ago, I posted the aluminum foil/washing soda/hot water recipe for cleaning tarnished silver. If I didn’t mention that baking soda can be substituted for washing soda, I probably should have, because washing soda is really hard to find. None of my local grocery stores or drug stores carry it (believe me - I’ve spent hours studying the cleaning product aisles).
But I found a source - the cleaning product section at my local hardware store, of all things. Who would have thought the hardware store would be the place to find obscure laundry products that can also be used as jewelry cleaners?
This aisle was a goldmine for useful things that I always have a hard time finding, including bowling alley wax (used to protect patinas on copper) and Goddard’s brand silver cloths (great for polishing silver, and they enhance the tarnish resistance of Argentium(tm) silver).
The wax is really only useful for jewelry makers, but for caring for your silver, if you’re having trouble finding the products I recommend, try the hardware store.
Caring for pearl jewelry
Posted by Administrator on Jan 27, 2006
Caring for pearl jewelry is a little bit harder than caring for all metal, or even metal and stone jewelry, because pearls are more easily damaged. Here are a few things to remember:
- Pearls are softer than most stones - so they can be scratched more easily. I advise storing pearls wrapped in a soft cloth, so that other jewelry in your jewelry box doesn’t scratch them.
- Pearls can be damaged by almost anything acidic - this includes salad dressing that contains vinegar, for example. After wearing pearls close to your skin, or if they may have come in contact with salad dressing or other mildly acidic food products, wipe them with a damp soft cloth. If the pearls are strung on silk, you don’t want to get the silk wet because it may stretch, but pearls that are set in metal or strung on wire can actually be rinsed off and cleaned with a very mild liquid soap.
- Because pearls can be damaged by chemicals in hair and cosmetic products, don’t use hairspray or spray perfume, deoderants, etc. while wearing your pearls. Ideally, pearls are the last thing you put on before leaving the house, and the first thing you take off when you return home.
- Don’t use a silver dip to clean jewelry containing both pearls and silver. In a recent post, I described a safer method of removing tarnish from silver jewelry containing pearls, using aluminum foil, baking soda, and hot water.
Preventing Tarnish
Posted by Administrator on Jan 25, 2006
Here are a few tips for preventing (or at least slowing) the tarnishing process:
- Store jewelry in a clean, dry environment
- Before storing your jewelry, clean it, and wipe metal parts with a silver polishing cloth (many brands contain chemicals that will help prevent tarnish from forming; they will also remove slight tarnish that has started forming)
- Consider purchasing anti-tarnish strips or anti-tarnish cloth (also called pacific cloth) for long-term jewelry storage
- Do not wear your jewelry in the shower, swimming pools, hot tubs, while cooking, or while using hair products or household cleaning products. These situations can expose the metal to sulphur and other chemicals that may cause oxides and sulfides (in other words, tarnish) to form.
- Clean and polish jewelry when tarnish starts - it is a lot easier to remove light tarnish (i.e. with a polishing cloth) than heavy tarnish.
Cleaning Silver
Posted by Administrator on Jan 19, 2006
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.
