Jewelry Care
When you’re dealing with precious gemstones, and beautiful gold and sterling silver, its important to look after them to ensure they continue looking new and beautiful! A buildup of oil from our skin and everyday grime is the culprit of this dulling effect. When you buy diamond or birthstone jewelry, you want it to last a lifetime. To ensure that these pieces have the “forever” quality, you need to make sure you are equipped with the right tools to keep these pieces looking flawless, forever.
How care for your Gold and Silver pieces
Gold
Clean your gold with a toothbrush and some soapy water. Make sure you reach every inch of your jewelry with the brush. Wash off the soap, and let the water run clear. To buff up your favourite gold, dry it off with a lint-free cloth and watch how it shines. If you aren’t an at-home-remedy sort of person, there are great non-abrasive jewelry cleansers that you can buy from any general jewelry shop. Just make sure these cleansers are safe if you’ve personalized your gold with meaningful birthstones. Always be sure to be gentle with your gold, we wouldn’t want to wind up with a scratch.
Although the cleaning of your gold jewelry is important, the general everyday care is what will keep your jewelry looking its best. Try not to wear your jewelry all day, every day. This is asking for scrapes and damages. When they come off, individually putting them in a small velvet-lined case will keep them clean and safe. If you’re an April baby, or you just love diamonds (and who doesn’t!) than you should ensure you keep your diamonds away from your gold. Diamonds are hard, and they can easily scratch your gold and silver. Finally, always make sure your jewelry is dry before you put it away. Damp jewelry can cause springs and clasps to fail over time.
Silver
Silver requires more maintenance then any other metal. Tarnishing occurs because silver reacts to pollutants in the air, which is then exacerbated by moisture and heat. Tarnishing can be removed by chemical tarnish removing solution.
Silver is beautiful and valuable. Among its many metal properties, it is relatively soft and malleable that makes it an idea candidate for jewelry crafting. However, pure silver is too soft and easily scratched. It is most commonly for silversmith to combine silver with other metal to create a more durable alloy.
Polish your jewelry by rubbing or buffing it with a soft cotton cloth. You can use a silver dip to help clean your product, then repeat the buffing process to bring out that beautiful shine you’ve been missing. You should only use dip when your dry cloth buffing technique doesn’t work first. When you’re done buffing, lock that shine in what a tarnish or simple lacquer shield. We always say simple is best. Before anything else, get a clean, soft cloth and polish your silver this way. It’s easy to buy jewelry, but its much harder to keep it looking beautiful and clean. Make sure you take good care of your rings, bracelets, necklaces and brooches to ensure that you’re looking your best, with your best jewelry forward!
How to clean a diamond ring
You can take your diamond jewelry to the jeweler to get cleaned, but sometimes you need a quick fix at home. Hand lotion and haircare products are the main culprits in gunking up your diamond ring. But everyday dirt and grime can also build up, causing your diamond to lose its sparkle. Instead of investing in special jewelry cleaning solutions, follow these simple tips to get your diamond ring clean as can be.
Place your diamond ring in a glass or bowl. Fill the bowl with warm water and add a little liquid dishwashing detergent. Any mild detergent will work fine, but clear dishwashing detergent seems to work best.
Swish the ring around in the mixture and then use a soft toothbrush to very gently remove any caked on dirt. Dirt normally accumulates at the back of the diamond at the base of the setting—so pay special attention to this area… Read full article at Jewlr Mag.
How to clean colored gemstone jewelry
Gemstones are durable substances, still, they do need some care. Follow a few general rules and they’ll last for generations still looking brand new.
Regular cleaning of Gemstone Jewelry is essential to maintain shine and brilliance of gems. On wearing them, they get dirty as you use various skin and body care regimen such as soaps, lotions and even our skin’s natural oils. Even when you are not wearing them, they collect dust.
To clean gemstone jewelry, first wipe it with a soft cloth to remove any dirt. You can use a small soft brush such as an eyebrow or lip stick brush, soap and water to clean your gemstone jewelry. Do not use toothpaste or any other abrasive cleaner on stones or mounting. Simply make a bowl of warm sudsy water with a mild detergent and gently place your jewelry pieces in the mixture. Never use boiling or hot water to clean gems. Then brush the gemstones with the soft bristles of the brush while they are in the suds. You will need to make certain that you rinse them clear of the suds after cleaning them. After this process, use a soft cloth or a jewelry polish cloth to pat them dry.
You can also use liquid jewelry cleaners which are sold by many department stores. You can find these liquid jewelry cleaners in kit form. You just need to follow all the written precautions and instructions of cleaning. It is also a good idea to have them cleaned once a year by a professional jeweller, where he will check security of the settings. He will also give advice for repair of loose or bent prongs which hold your gemstones in place. This will prevent your gem from falling out of its setting and becoming lost. The jeweler will usually give your gemstone a professional ‘shine and polish’.
The hard gemstones variety can be vulnerable to breakage if it has inclusions that weaken the crystal structure. They can shatter with a single well-placed blow especially if they have inclusions, which weaken the crystal structure.
Think twice before putting gems in an ultrasonic cleaner. Diamonds, rubies and sapphires will be fine but many other gems may not be. Diamonds, rubies and sapphires, and other single-crystal gems can be cleaned with a touch of ammonia in water to remove all films and add extra sparkle.
Never use an ultrasonic cleaner or ammonia for cleaning such opaque gemstones like lapis, turquoise, malachite or onyx. They should be wiped clean gently with a moist cloth. These gemstones can be porous and may absorb chemicals, even soap, which may build up inside the stone and discolor it.
The reason why these materials need more care than transparent gemstones is that these materials are essentially rocks, not crystals of a single mineral. Think about it: when you put a rock in water, it absorbs the water and is moist all the way through. A single crystal gem like sapphire will not absorb water: all the molecules are lined up so tightly in the crystal that there is no room for water to enter.
Storing gemstone jewelry
Store each piece of gemstone jewelry separately so that harder stones don’t scratch softer ones. Almost every gemstone is much harder than the metal it is set in. Gems can scratch the finish on your gold, silver or platinum if you throw your jewelry in a heap in a drawer or jewelry box.
Gemstone jewelry should be stored individually in a soft cloth pouch to ensure that a gem should not scratch other gems or other jewelry.
Gemstone jewelry pieces are best stored in a fabric-lined jewel case or in a box with compartments or dividers.
