One of our most prized and private items is jewellery. Our emotions and eyes are delighted by jewellery. Some of the best times in our lives are tied to certain pieces. A particularly private form of self-expression is jewellery. You may enjoy your beautiful jewellery for a lifetime with the right maintenance. Follow these tips for taking care of fine jewellery to keep it looking attractive and in top shape. You could be surprised by some facts!
Handle Carefully
You should treat every piece of jewellery delicately. When putting or taking off rings, avoid holding them by pulling on the diamonds. The prongs and settings may become loose as a result of this. Avoid wearing anything that can catch your bracelets or necklaces.
Natural and Synthetic Materials
Steer clear of harsh chemicals, such as those found in sweat, acidic foods, hair care products, soaps, lotions, body oils, dirt, salt water, and chlorine. Your gemstones, precious metals, and pearls may get dull, discoloured, or broken by these chemicals.
When washing your hands, always take off your jewellery. Replace your rings after applying lotion. Never forget to shut the drain on your sink!
When putting on jewellery, always do so last. Apply your lotions, perfume, and hairspray first, then brush your teeth.
Use a gentle, clean, smooth cotton cloth or a jewellery polishing cloth to clean your accessories after each wearing. Never polish pearls or jewels using a towel. Your polishing cloth will eventually get darker, but you may still use it.
Be mindful of hot tubs, pool chlorine, and saltwater while wearing precious jewellery.
Avoid Exhausting Activities
Be aware that strenuous exercise may cause jewellery to dent, scrape, lose jewels, or become discoloured. It is best to take off your rings and bracelets before participating in strenuous activities such as sports, gardening, lifting large things, using tools, cleaning, or carrying baggage.
Be wary of light and temperature
Keep your jewellery out of extreme heat or cold. Avoid overexposing pearls or gemstones to the sun.
Storage
Never keep your jewellery with the pieces in contact with one another. In contact with other jewellery, jewellery will scratch.
To keep your valuables organised, use jewellery boxes with separate, velvet-lined sections or double-pocketed purses. Put your necklace chain in the other pouch pocket and your pendant in the other. The chain doesn’t need to be taken off.
Place rings in your jewellery box’s ring slots or separate pouch pockets to keep them organised. Do not press rings with wider bands into the slots if they do not readily fit. Instead, use the jewellery pockets or purses.
To prevent tarnishing, store sterling silver in airtight plastic bags or covered in cleaning cloths. Use only non-silver cleaning products on silver. The protective anti-tarnish coating present on many silver products will be removed. Your sterling silver jewellery will tarnish less the more you wear it. Tarnish may be carefully removed with a polishing cloth.
Avoid using plastic bags to store pearls or any other organic material beads.
Avoid hanging your bracelets or necklaces from hooks or jewellery trees. The clasps, chain links, and stretch stringing materials may get stressed.
Gently remove the trash with a very delicate brush. Items should be soaked in warm, soapy water with the mildest detergent, except pearls, emeralds, and rubies. For sapphires and diamonds that are transparent, use a drop of ammonia. Use lukewarm water to rinse, then drain and pat dry.
Polishing clothes work really well for delicately removing oxidation and minor nicks. Avoid pulling the links while cleaning chains with a towel. Links may get weakened as a result of stress.
Emeralds and rubies are brittle. Use only a dry, soft cotton rag to clean them. DO NOT give them a bath with soapy water. Emeralds have an oily layer that cleansers and jewellery cleaners may remove.
To enhance their colour and give their surfaces a smoother look, raw emeralds are oiled, often with cedar oil.
It is not recommended to immerse pearls or other strung beads in any liquid. To carefully remove off each pearl or bead, just use a clean, dry, soft, white cotton cloth. To get rid of the debris, use a very delicate brush. Never pull on the stringing cord.
If sterling silver is submerged for an extended length of time, it may discolour.
Wearing Multiple Rings or Bracelets
Be warned that the trendy trend of stacking rings or bracelets can scratch your jewellery. To reduce the visibility of minute scratches, polish the surface.
Professional Care
Have a jeweller examine your jewellery at least once a year. Regular examination and repair of fine jewellery must be done by a qualified jeweller. Your objects will be examined for weak chain links, chipped, cracked, or worn gemstones as well as worn prongs and settings.
A competent jeweller will also inspect for missing or loose gemstones, worn knots or stretched cords for pearl and other beaded necklaces, loose or missing gemstones, and may oil emeralds. They will also look for discoloured and damaged metal surfaces.
Professional buffing tools may be used to erase superficial scratches. Metals with lustrous finishes will also regain their brilliance with buffing.
Pearl and bead necklaces with several strands should be completely restrung at the same time. Your necklace can become shorter after being repaired since restringing will take up the slack caused by worn-out knots and stretched cords.
Pearls with stains cannot be fixed; they may need to be removed. When feasible, worn pearls should be positioned towards the rear of the necklace.
Necklaces with metal beads shouldn’t be tied. The stringing rope may get upbraided or torn by the metal edges. Never sandwich metal beads between pearls.
Your expert jeweller can revive your white gold pieces by giving them a new coat of rhodium. This will bring back the shiny, dazzling white-silver hue.
Jewellers often clean your jewellery using ultrasonic cleaners and specialised cleaning solutions to get rid of any residue or filmy items. This approach should never be used to clean pearls or certain jewels. The cleaning solution and ultrasonic vibrations may discolour, fracture, and remove protective coatings from certain materials.
The following items are often avoided while using ultrasonic cleaners:
All sorts of Pearls, Emeralds, Tanzanite, Tourmalines, Peridot, Malachite, Agates, Onyx, Lapis Lazuli, Mother-of-Pearl, Coral, Synthetic Gems, Cubic Zirconia, Marcasite, Turquoise, Jade, Amber, Synthetic Diamonds, Diamonds with Many Inclusions, Colored Diamonds, Tungsten.
Please be aware that the materials listed below are not all of the ones that should not be cleaned with ultrasonic equipment. Always inquire about the safest cleaning techniques for your jewellery from a trained jeweller.
Your fine jewellery will remain lovely with the right cleaning and maintenance for the rest of your life and often for future generations to appreciate. We really hope that these 29 facts regarding caring for beautiful jewellery were useful.
