Sunday, December 21, 2008

Cleaning Silver Jewelery – How to Look After Your Silver Jewellery

As compared to the alloys of gold, silver is a softer metal. The negative aspect of being softer metal is that your jewellery goes out of shape easier than high karat gold jewellery. Beside this, silver also gets the scratches very easily. Tarnishing is another disadvantage of silver jewellery. But you can enjoy your jewelery for a longer time even lifetime by taking good care of your jewellery.

To avoid scratches on your jewellery you should keep these points in mind.

· Take off your silver jewellery when you think that you are doing something where your jewellery is going to be rubbed against anything. So don’t wear jewellery while washing dishes, gardening etc.
· Don’t wear two rings in a finger or alongside another ring because it will scratch and rub.
· Store you jewellery in jewellery box or the boxes having soft material on the edges and around them.
· By polishing your jewellery you can remove light scratches.
· Always use a good polish to disguise your jewellery.
· For heavy scratches you should consult a jeweler. Don’t try to remove heavy scratches by yourself.

But to prevent your silver jewellery from tarnishing totally, you nearly have to avoid everything in life. Body salts, food, oils and even air can tarnish silver. To prevent your jewellery from tarnishing you must not allow foods, hairsprays and other chemicals from contacting your jewellery. You can also avoid tarnishing by early cleaning. You have to store your jewellery in a proper storage place. Store your jewellery in your jewellery box which should be airtight and tarnish free. Don’t leave your jewellery in bathroom. Always wash your jewellery with a detergent. Dry it with a soft cloth and than rub it smoothly and in parallel. For proper cleaning of your jewellery, silver polishing clothes are also available in market. Don’t use toothbrushes and other hard surface material for cleaning you jewellery. Proper silver polishing cloth will not cost you a large sum of money. But if you haven’t cleaned your jewellery for a long time then it is better to clean your jewellery with a soft brush with warm water and a strong detergent. But early cleaning of jewellery is more important because strong detergents and brush are abrasive. You can also go for tarnish absorbing strips or clothes in your jewellery box to avoid tarnishing and these works quite good.
Now-a-days the material used in making of jewellery is tarnish-resistant and this can solve the tarnishing problem almost totally. Rhodium plated silver jewellery is a tarnish-resistant jewellery. Besides its tarnishing resistant property, it also gives more shine than sterling silver and looks beautiful with different outfits. But tarnish-free silver is also more expensive than ordinary silver.You can use pastes and solutions which are available in hardware stores, but do remember that as the time passes they might produce scratches on jewellery. So always use these chemicals sparingly. To keep your jewellery to its peak, take it to the jeweler for polishing and buffing occasionally. Simply you can avoid any damage to the silver jewellery by sensible wearing, proper cleaning and storing it in a proper place.

For More Information and Articles on Jewellery:
Please visit this site for full information about Jewellery and its different types and designs. For example Gold Jewellery, Silver Jewellery, Engagement Rings etc:
http://www.myjewelersplace.com/

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