Taking care of your jewelry
A piece of jewelery is only truly sustainable if you continue to maintain it properly.
Precious metals, gemstones and pearls are beautiful materials from nature. They are strong, but not inviolable.
Their unique features require attention and care.
Polishing
Regularly clean your gold and silver jewelry with an old toothbrush with warm water and mild soap. Dirt from your skin can build up in jewelry and cause it to lose its shine. If your piece of jewelry is set with gemstones, you will be amazed at the shine that the stone can get back after a cleaning! Also get used to checking wether your stones are still firmly seated in the metal. Dirt in the setting of the stone can make it seem the stones are secure even though the setting might have worn out over the years.
Gold
Gold is much stronger than silver. There is a good reason for choosing old wedding rings over silver. They must of course last the entire marriage and preferably even longer. Usually gold's shine lasts longer and and scratches are less likely to occur. However, it also applies to gold jewelry that you have to take good care of it.
To ensure that your gold jewelry lasts longer, you can do the following:
-Take off your gold jewelry during sports, swimming, showering, sleeping, cleaning and heavy work such as gardening, house chores and heavy lifting.
- If your gold jewelry lost its shine, you can usually solve this by polishing the jewelry with a toothbrush, some warm water and soap. This can also be done with a special polishing cloth for gold.
Silver
A natural phenomenon of silver is oxidation/tarnishing. This is the blackening of the surface and is caused by sulfur in the air or the acidity of your skin. In some people, silver quickly tarnishes on the skin, in others it does not. This has nothing to do with the quality of the silver.
To ensure your silver jewelry does not tarnish or wear out as quickly, you can do the following:
-Take off your jewelry when sleeping, exercising, swimming, showering, cleaning, or when working with strong chemicals.
-First put on your make-up, body spray, hair spray, perfume, skin cream, etc. and only when it is dry you put on your jewelry.
-Wearing silver in sunlight might increases tarnishing.
-When you are not wearing jewelry, store it in a closed box.
If your jewelry does oxidize, which is almost inevitable, do the following:
- Polish it lightly with a special silver polishing cloth. Do not use silver polishing liquids such as Silvo on this. This can accumulate in your jewelry and is not always safe for pearls. If this is not enough, please contact me. I have special material to make your jewelry shine again.
-Silver is a metal that scratches and tarnishes quickly. When doing the dishes, heavy chores, gardening, sports, etc. it is better to take off silver jewelry. This way they wear less quickly and ugly scratches or other spots are less likely to appear.
Gemstones and pearls
Each gemstone has its own aversion to certain circumstances.
Below are a number of tips to keep your stones or pearls beautiful for as long as possible.
-Some stones can discolour if they are exposed to strong sunlight for too long.
- Rose quartz, amethyst and citrine are some well-known gemstones that can fade in the bright sun.
-Some gemstones and most pearls are not resistant to impact, soap, cosmetics and other chemicals.
-Make sure you don't wear pearls on heavily perfumed skin. Pearls are also very sensitive to wear.
-If you want to clean your jewelry with gemstones or pearls, look up what you can and can't use with your stone or pearl. Feel free to contact me for advice.
-Finally, also pay close attention to the setting of the pearl or gemstone. This can wear out over time and cause the stones to become loose and fall out.