Tarnishing is very common if you wear your brass or silver jewelry frequently. It happens when the metal reacts with oxygen or other compounds. As you wear your jewelry close to the skin, dirt, cosmetics and body oils all can cause your jewelry discoloration, looking dull and even leave scratches.
Fortunately, restoring your silver jewelry to its original shine is easy and just need few steps.
What do You Need to Prepare Before Cleaning:
– Baking soda
– Aluminum foil
– Soft jewelry cloth
– A big blow
– Hot water
Instructions:
1, Put a piece of aluminum foil in the big bowl (big enough to cower the bottom)
2, Put silver jewelry on the foil ( separate them if you need to clean multiple pieces)
3, Sprinkle baking soda over jewelry (2-3 TB is enough)
4, Pour hot water in the bowel and cover all of the jewelry
5, Soak for 15-20 minutes
6, Take the pieces out and rinse thoroughly
7, Dry them with soft jewelry cloth and store them after they are dry thoroughly.
Why is Silver Easy to Tarnish?
Just like pure gold, pure silver is pretty soft and their shape can be easily changed, so they can’t be used to make jewelry or artwork pieces. But jewelers and metalworkers figured to create an alloy (mix pure silver and small amount of copper) which is much stronger and harder than pure silver. 92.5% pure silver plus 7.5% of Cooper or other metals, that’s the alloy which is called sterling silver. So when you see a piece of jewelry come with stamps “S925” , it means that piece of jewelry contains 92.5% of pure silver.
Cooper makes the sterling silver stronger but it also embed its flaw to it- easy to react with oxygen and other compounds in the air. So your sterling silver jewelry will become dull, tarnish over time but silver part in the metal can’t be harmed by the reaction, so the tarnished part can be polished and cleaned by methods.
What Will Tarnish Your Sterling Silver Jewelry?
Humidity air, salty environment, household chemicals, chlorine and sweat all can tarnish your sterling silver jewelry.
How to Prevent Your Silver Jewelry from Tarnishing?
– Store your silver jewelry in plastic bags. Avoid them being exposed to oxygen. Remove the air before sealing the bag.
– Keep them away from water. So take them off before showering, washing hands, doing dishes. Dry your silver jewelry thoroughly after washing them.
- Avoid chemicals. Put your silver jewelry after you dressed up, sprayed perfume and hair products and take them off before workout.
- Clean your silver jewelry. Use polishing cloths to polish your jewelry when you find it is starting to lose its luster.
So you know how to clean your silver jewelry pieces, if you also wear gold plated jewelry, it is also important to know how to clean it.