How to care for your jewelry
Posted on April 26th, 2011 in Uncategorized
Photo from Google Images
Protect your jewelry. Store them in a soft-lined box or pouch, and keep the pieces from rubbing together or tangling up.
Don’t wear your precious jewelry when cleaning, gardening or engaging in sports. Remember never to swim with jewelry on, as chlorine can damage them.
Buff sterling silver pieces with a soft cotton cloth. It’s also a good idea to store them in Ziploc bags, to prevent them from tarnishing.
Keep gemstones such as amethyst, aquamarine, and rose quartz away from sunlight, as they tend to get paler.
Establish a symbiotic relationship with your jewelry, and they will be your friends for life.
When caring for your jewelry, never use anything but 100% cotton as a polishing cloth since paper, polyester, and coarse fabrics often contain wood fibers or synthetics. These materials may impart fine scratches in the metal, especially on sterling silver.
A polished appearance is the result of the metalsmith’s effort to file, sand and buff the metal to a perfectly flat surface. When even minor scratches occur, as seen under a microscope, the surface looks like the ragged edge of a saw blade and light is bounced in and around those scratches like a voice echoing in the Alps. An unmarred surface allows the light to be bounced back smoothly, with no echoes, and results in a highly reflective surface.