How Jewelry Care and Cleaning Works

How Jewelry Care and Cleaning Peoples jewelry has tremendous value weather it me monetary value or sentimental value. Jewelry is one of the most items that are kept in families as heirlooms handed sown from generation to generation, it is also them items that are exchanged between loved ones as wedding rings, engagement rings or lockets they hold dear to people and should be kept in the best condition possible so as to increase their longevity. When not to wear jewelry? Most people would like to wear sentimental jewelry all of the time and don’t like to take it off this will have a very damaging effect on your precious jewelry as it will wear down if not destroy the precious metal and any precious stones that it may contain. If you really need to wear your jewelry on a daily basis then at least take it off when doing activities such as gardening as this can scratch the gold, swimming and household cleaning can cause chemical damaging and discoloration of gold and platinum. Use your common sense when deciding weather to wear jewelry or not any environment or activity that will expose your jewels to high temperatures, harsh chemical abrasives or risk of scratching and damage remove your jewelry before undertaking such activities. What is the best way to clean your jewelry? Knowing how to property maintain and clean your jewelry is very important. You want the jewelry to look its best but without exposing the metals to any damaging cleaning materials so follow these tips and you can go wrong. Soaking your jewelry in warm soapy water for 30 minutes then thoroughly rinsing under cold running water before patting dry is a safe and easy way to clean of dirt and grim that has built up and made your jewelry look dull and old. This should be done at least once per month to avoid any unsightly build up of grime. This procedure is safer then getting the jewelry professionally cleaned because they will use a mild abrasive on our jewelry to make it sparkle and shine but over time this will actually cause damage to the gold if done too often. There are some old wives tales that are purely myths and should not be used to clean jewelry and they are using boiling water to clean your jewelry this is the easies way to destroy jewelry the high temperatures can cause cracking and discoloring of the stones. Toothpaste is another myth that doesn’t work it is a harsh abrasive and over time will scratch gold and softer metals. Ammonia is okay to use on rubies and sapphires but can damage other softer gemstones so is best avoided. How to store your jewelry? Jewelry is best kept separated from each other as different metals and stones can have an abrasive effect on each other. Always store the jewels in the soft velvet box that they come in or in a case where this is gone use soft velvet purse to wrap each piece in separately. These should be then store in a jewelry box away from light that can cause discoloration and will keep your precious jewels all together in one place and well organized.