How to take care of your Silver Jewellery

Silver is a precious metal usually mixed with copper to enhance its durability. Sterling Silver consists of 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent copper. Over time oxidisation will occur causing silver to become tarnished. Care should be taken to prevent this tarnishing, and many commercial products are available that will easily remove the tarnish buildup that naturally occurs.

When cared for properly, your Silver jewellery will last a lifetime. Simply wearing your jewellery helps prevent, or at least slow down, the oxidation process keeping your jewellery looking new. To minimize scratching your Silver jewellery should be stored in cloth pouches or in separate compartments in your jewellery box.

Some Silver jewellery is finished with Rhodium giving it the appearance of platinum and is generally thought of as tarnish resistant. If your new piece of Silver jewellery is finished with Rhodium, we recommend that you clean it with a jewellery cleaning cloth and polishing cloth. None Rhodium treated Silver jewellery is cleaned in much the same way, but will require more frequent polishing to maintain its lustre. With brand new Silver jewellery a polishing cloth is typically all that is needed. To achieve the best results with jewellery containing cubic Zirconia a liquid fine jewellery cleaner is recommended.

If your jewellery appears to have dulled with age, or requires deep cleaning, we recommend using a jewellery cleaning cloth followed by your jewellery polishing cloth. The cleaning cloth can be used on gold, Sterling Silver, and Sterling Silver finished with Rhodium. To use the cleaning cloth, be sure that the jewellery is dry then rub with the cleaning cloth. Follow this by buffing with your polishing cloth to restore the shine to your jewellery.

Do not use silver dip as this will damage the Rhodium finish and is known to remove colour and polish from certain gemstones. Although it may be acceptable to use silver dip on pieces that are not set with gemstones or finished with Rhodium, the chemicals are extremely harsh and should be reserved for instances in which the item is completely tarnished, such as antique sterling silver items. We do not recommend using silver dip on our jewellery.

Follow the steps below to clean your Sterling Silver Jewellery

1. Thoroughly clean the Silver with a Silver cleaning cloth. For items that are really dirty or have a lot of tarnish rub the item really well. We consider this to be the most important step because how well you clean the piece will affect its final appearance.

2. Polish the Silver using a jewellery polishing cloth. Now that the item is clean, this step will bring out the shine in your Silver.

3. To remove residue from the stones and the silver, dip the item in liquid fine jewellery cleaner and brush it with a clean, soft brush. (DO NOT USE SILVER DIP as this will ruin jewellery with Rhodium and cubic Zirconia)

4. Rinse the item with cold water and dry with a soft clean cloth. You can use a soft duster or the outer cloth of your silver polishing cloth.