Jewellery Care
A guide to caring for silver jewellery
Caring for silver jewellery
As the most lustrous of the precious metals, silver needs extra care to keep on shining. Before beginning a care regime for your silver jewellery, it's important to understand how purity affects daily wear, tear, and tarnishing.
- Fine silver is pure and compliments silver earrings and silver necklaces. Although fine silver is fragile, it's purity makes it stand alone from the rest
- Sterling silver is the most common form of silver present in jewellery. It is alloyed with copper and will be semi-resistant to scratching, but not tarnishing.
- Coin silver, Russian silver, and other low purity silvers are less expensive. Being alloyed with several different metals, they are highly resilient to damage and tarnishing.
Daily Wearing Tips
The easiest way to prevent the early degradation of your silver jewellery is to follow a daily care routine. Here are some day-to-day tips to keep your silver rings, silver earrings, silver bracelets, and silver necklaces looking shiny for longer.
- Don't be afraid to wear your silver. Friction prevents tarnish build up.
- Remove your silver jewellery when sleeping, bathing, exercising and swimming, chemicals found in chlorinated water, as well as the salt in sea water and sweat will encourage tarnishing.
- Store each piece of silver separately. You can do this in a jewellery box or with separate soft cloths.
- Get rid of moisture when storing your pieces. Put silica gel or a piece of chalk in your jewellery box.
- Avoid exposing your jewellery directly to perfumes, soap, abrasive chemicals and cosmetics. It’s best to wait until perfumes and cosmetics are completely dry before putting your jewellery on.
- Blackening on the skin may be easily removed by washing with warm soapy water.
- A polishing cloth should be used on silver pieces to restore shine and remove tarnishing and residue. You can also remove blackening from areas around settings and hard to reach places by using a toothbrush with warm soapy water. It’s important to then rinse your piece with water and dry it immediately.
- For your plated sterling silver jewellery, you may also use a cloth but it’s important to do so gently. Over-polishing will eventually degrade the plated surface. Should your plated pieces tarnish or need cleaning you can also use a toothbrush with warm soapy water, rinsing your piece afterwards and drying it immediately.
What not to do
Most silver pieces are fairly resilient, thanks to the presence of copper and other alloys. However to prevent against degradation and damage, you should never expose your silver jewellery to household cleaners and other harmful chemicals you may in contact with. These chemicals include:
- Chlorine
- Chloride
- Bleach
- Solvents
- Detergents
- Dissolvents