We’ve all been taking care to keep our hands clean even while we’re stuck at home during quarantine, but did you ever think that perhaps your jewellery isn’t as clean as your hands? Here is Nicholas’ advice for taking some time to make sure it is while you have the time to do so.
Gem-Set Jewellery:
All transparent gems in jewellery go cloudy / sleepy very quickly by attracting grease, dust and all sorts from every day wear. So how do we keep them sparkling at home?
Nicholas would recommend not to use the old wive’s tale of soaking them in gin or boiling in carbonate soda, but possibly while actually drinking a small gin, take out your favourite items once a week, and with a soft tooth brush, hot water, and some washing up liquid, brush reasonably hard around the stones getting the small brissels onto the back of the stones through the small holes in the design. This process should not damage the items of jewellery or the stones. Don’t clean it over an open plug hole in a sink just in case a stone comes out and goes down the plug hole, maybe take a large bowl and clean over that. Be sure not to be vigorous with a piece that hasn’t had it’s settings checked in while too.
Stones to be much more careful cleaning would be the organic ones like coral, pearl, abalone. Perhaps wait and visit us once we’re open again for those.
After washing, swill, dry off and once again wear your fine jewellery with it’s true beauty radiating and sparkling out!
Gold and Silver Jewellery:
The only way to properly clean metals is by using a designated product. To clean silver, start by first dipping the item into a silver dip, this will remove the oxidisation, then use the soft tooth brush with soapy hot water to remove any grime, swill with water, then with a silver cloth that’s impregnated with polish, give the item a good once-over. This will make the item of jewellery shine more but won’t get rid of any scratches made on the item. Only bringing it into a professional workshop will make it look like new again.
Gold, platinum and palladium items are basically the same as the above, but as these metals do not tarnish, you can simply again scrub these with a soft toothbrush in hot soapy water followed by a good rub with an impregnated gold polish cloth. This will bring some life back into the item of jewellery.
Watches
With wristwatches, or any metal bracelets, there is no harm in using the technique written above. For metals, get the bristles of the toothbrush in between the links, but be careful with the watch case if it isn’t water resistant. Follow this with a good rub with a polish cloth.
Pearls
When wearing pearls, Nicholas would recommend to make sure that you put them on after any perfume or other cosmetic has been used. To clean them he would recommend doing so once every three years, and to bring them in-store rather than cleaning them yourself. This is for pearls that are worn regularly.
In the future, once we’re open again, know that jewellery care products can be bought in-store from us. On top of that, did you know that if your jewellery pieces were made by us that it receives professional clean and polishes for life!? What a fabulous perk! – We hope you found the contents of this post useful, and please remember to support the NHS by staying at home. Be well! – The Wylde Team.
