Caring for your most prized possessions is the best way to ensure their continued life and luster. As well as understanding how to clean and maintain the jewelry, this guide will offer you hints and tips on how to store it and so avoid your favorite pieces getting damaged.
Preventing damage
The likeliest way your most precious jewelry pieces will come to harm is through accidental damage. How many times have you lost the backing to your earring or the pendant on your necklace is scratched? It is not only distressing but also frustrating, as we all know there are ways that this damage can be prevented. For instance:
– We should remove our jewelry before we sleep, shower or exercise.
– If applying lotion and perfumes, we need to avoid getting this on our jewelry. We should remove our pieces if we want them to be free of grime build-up.
– Take off your jewelry when you are cleaning, so it does not come into contact with chemicals
– Use the appropriate storage tools, such as necklace trees and boxes, to keep pieces safe and secure, as well as out of the reach of children.
Checking for damage
We should also get into the routine of checking our jewellery for damage. Some damage is not easily avoided but if allowed to go unchecked could become permanent. It is especially important to check the jewelry that you wear every day and give it some TLC.
The sort of things you should check include the stone setting on a ring. If the stone is loose, you should get this fixed quickly. You will notice a problem as there will likely be claws missing from the setting.
You should also check the clasps on necklaces and bracelets, which are often the first thing to fail and can cause the loss of a piece as you move around. Weakened links in a necklace chain are rarer, but older pieces can become a problem. On bracelets and lockets, hinged joints are also prone to failure. You need to check for too much movement and get this mended with a jeweler.
How to store your jewelry
One way to prevent damage is to store it appropriately. While it is tempting to get up to the bedroom and throw everything on the side, it is likely going to cause tangles and damage, and potential losses. Therefore, getting a box will keep your jewellery organised.
To do this effectively, you need to separate jewelry types into different sections. This sectioning is important because certain metals can react with each other can cause damage. If the jewelry is delicate, you will want to keep it separate too, maybe inside velvet pouches, which will stop soft fabrics from being scratched.
There are also alternative storage options. For instance, there are special holders for rings, which allow you to see them on the show and select the one you want. You can also buy a necklace tree to hang your best pieces from, which allows you to show off your most delicious pieces anyway.
Preventing tarnishing
Gold and silver are likely to tarnish if they are exposed to moisture or to the air. After a while, they will go black if not stored correctly. While tarnishing is reversible, it is best to prevent it from happening first. Therefore, before returning jewelry to your box ensure they are dry, especially if it has been exposed to rain. You should remove any build-up of grime before storing the piece and lower the humidity in your jewelry box using those silica gel packs that come in some deliveries.
Clean carefully
While cleaning jewelry is relatively straightforward, you need to be sure to remove excess cleaning material. If you don’t remove the excess, it will turn to grime and build up over time. Some metals do not need to be polished. However, if you want to keep the luster of silver and gold, you will want to give it some time on a regular basis.
To do it properly you can use normal soap that you would use for your hands. Mix the soap with warm water and use a toothbrush to get into the crevices. Make sure you rinse thoroughly and dry the jewelry with a microfibre cloth. Alternatively, you can use the salt bath method, which, as the name suggests, involves soaking jewelry in warm salty water. If you put some ripper aluminum foil in the mix too, you will find the jewelry comes out sparkling.
If your jewelry is particularly expensive and there is a precious gem in a delicate setting, you may wish to take the piece to your local jewelers for specialist care.
