| Cleaning Silver and Pearl Jewellery | | | | cleaning , it's a lot cheaper. |
| We all wash our clothes regularly and keep our | | | | Another way of keeping your silver clean and |
| shoes well healed and polished , so why is it that | | | | avoiding having to resort to such methods to |
| jewellery is not often treated in the same way? | | | | clean it is to put a piece of chalk in the box |
| The very thing that attracted a purchase of | | | | alongside it - the chalk absorbs the moisture in the |
| jewellery was the sparkle and shine - that magic | | | | air which as I said earlier , affects the silver. Along |
| love of all that glitters. Yet so often I see | | | | the same lines is the method of wrapping up your |
| jewellery looking dull without lustre and shimmer | | | | silver in acid-free tissue paper until you want to |
| and think to myself if only I could get my hands | | | | use it. This is what we do with virtually all our |
| on it and return it to its pristine state. | | | | silver sales - if a bride-to-be buys a tiara and her |
| Silver is notorious for dulling , going black and | | | | wedding is not for a few months , we tell her to |
| brown at the edges. This is caused by exposure | | | | keep the tiara wrapped up until the big day! |
| to the air which shows in the copper content that | | | | Gold jewellery , though retaining its shine longer |
| existed in sterling silver oxidising on the surface. | | | | than silver still can go dull and grimy. It can be |
| There are several ways to clean silver. | | | | quite a surprise after cleaning to realise just how |
| Proprietary brands such as Goddard's Silver Dip | | | | dirty it had become. Again with gold , I would |
| are excellent - just a few seconds dip and then a | | | | recommend a jewellery dip even the same silver |
| warm rinse with a mild detergent and then pat | | | | dips I mentioned before will also work on gold. |
| dry with some kitchen paper towel. With these | | | | The dips will not harm gemstones or crystals so |
| dips , though , you must not dip pearls - they will | | | | you will be safe dipping those. |
| be irreparably damaged. You can clean the silver | | | | Pearls, as I mentioned before are the exception. |
| around the pearls by dipping a soft toothbrush | | | | They need very gentle cleaning as the surface is |
| into the dip and then polishing the silver , avoiding | | | | delicate and can easily become scuffed and lose |
| the pearls. Don't clean your teeth with the | | | | their lustre. Also beware perfume! The alcohol |
| toothbrush afterwards! | | | | content of perfumes can affect pearls. |
| But talking of toothbrushes , another method of | | | | Pearls are best cleaned using warm water and a |
| cleaning silver is to use toothpaste. Simply rub the | | | | mild detergent suitable for woollens and then |
| toothpaste all over the silver and rinse it off. You | | | | gently dried with a soft cloth. Store pearls in a |
| won't get such excellent results on really | | | | soft pouch away from other jewellery to avoid |
| blackened silver as with the dips , but for ordinary | | | | the pearls becoming scratched. |