Prevention and Care
One of the first things that you should do is to designate a place in your home to place your rings and other jewellery while doing tasks like washing dishes, gardening, or cleaning the house. Most people are guilty of keeping their wedding rings on all the time, but they should be removed when there’s a chance they could get wet or dirty,for the sake of hygiene. You should even take your jewellery off in the shower or when applying hand lotion, sunscreens etc as soap residue and moisture can get trapped in the crevices of your jewellery and cause issues. Prevent premature tarnishing on silver by storing it in felt away from other jewellery and metals. Keep gold jewellery in a jewellery box that is also lined with felt to prevent moisture build-up and tarnishing.
Maintaining Jewellery
Next, assess the type of jewellery you want to clean. All fine jewellery should be cleaned with care, but some gemstones require a more gentle approach, so that they don’t crack or chip. Fragile materials—like pearls and cameos made from shells, emeralds, opals, or turquoise—should be handled with extreme care. The frequency of cleaning jewellery matters, too. Most fine jewellery should only be cleaned everyone other month or so to prevent unnecessary exposure to liquids. If you find yourself needing or wanting to clean your jewellery more often, be sure to use a gentle method and avoid ultrasonic cleaners or steamers (Those are for the professionals and can cause damage if used by someone untrained in their specific use for jewellery). Excessive use of at home ultrasonic machines can eventually loosen stones, wear down the metal, and cause even more significant damage. Have your jewellery checked by a trusted professional jeweller twice a year to ensure they are secure and properly cleaned, we will do that at The Diamond Tree Studio, and even deep clean your jewellery for you for free. Even if you haven’t bought it from us.
