Care & Maintenance
Jewelry care and maintenance:
So you bought that beautiful necklace as the perfect accompaniment to your daily outfit. Like a star on top of a Christmas tree, you’re expecting it to shine out for your friends to appreciate. You expect it to adorn you and represent your fashion sense in all sorts of situations. Pretty soon, it will be like a personal friend to you, being there through the peaks and valleys that you will go through.
But have you ever thought about how long this necklace would last? Like all other material things, you can expect it to fade away, or to simply lose its beauty sooner or later. Though this is a fact, there are still a good number of things that you can do to make your jewelry last longer. All it takes is simple jewelry care and maintenance.
First of all, you’re doing your jewelry a favor when you take them off before you get a bath or hop into the sauna. gemstones in particular, are quite sensitive to exposure to moisture. Remember that moisture on any of your jewelry serves as a trap for dust and dirt to collect.
Second: Avoid wearing your jewelry in therapeutic baths, take it off before you go inside the sauna, especially if your jewelry is made out of precious gemstones. Gemstones are highly sensitive to high temperatures. Pearl jewelry does not react well to extremely humid situations either.
Third: Cleaning your jewelry is one thing you can do to extend the life of your precious pieces. If your piece of jewelry has precious stones in it, then a mixture of conventional cleaning powder and water can do wonders in removing common stains and spots. Take note, however, that the softer your stones are, the more delicate your soap should be. You can easily brush off dirt from harder diamonds and sapphires with a good solution of distilled water and cleaning powder. If you have softer opals and moonstones, try using more delicate soaps.
This solution of soap and water (see below for basic cleaning solution) can also be used on gold and silver. Take care to avoid using cleaning powder without any whitening chemicals, as they will affect the color of gold in particular. Check if the powder has any chlorine in it as well, as it would affect the finish of silver jewelry too.
One other rule in cleaning jewelry is to proceed with caution. If you are not sure about the chemical content of the soap youre using, try applying it on a less conspicuous section of your jewelry first. Oftentimes chemical reactions occur right away, so you should see if the washing powder has any effect on the metals which comprise of your jewelry.
Proceeding with caution also means that you dont want to go ahead and start with literal scrubbing. If you can simply wipe off dirt from your jewelry, stick to just wiping it. Once you finish cleaning your jewelry, make sure its dry before you store it. Keep jewelry in dry, cool and closed containers. Heat and exposure to the sun can damage your jewelry significantly.
Click Here for the Basic Jewelry Cleaning Solution
Click Here for 5 Jewelry Cleaning Tips
