Sterling Silver Jewelry

Material guide for jewelry pieces

There are many materials that can be used for jewelry making especially for body piercing. You can get the jewelry piece made form gold, silver, platinum and other metals which are coming in several different styles. Here is the information on each material you can use as your guideline for your jewelry material selections.

Steel: divided into two types, stainless steel or implant grade steel. Both types can be use for jewelry material but the implant grade steel is coming with higher quality. Stainless steel is generally fine for most people but for the sensitive skill, you might need to go with the implant grade instead. Check for the cleanness on the piece before apply to your piecing.

Titanium: titanium gives a similar feeling like steel but with many advantages over the steel. It is preferable material for sensitive skin person. The weight for titanium is considerable as lighter material than steel, highly polished and shinier than steel. This material is also come with different in colors than steel.

Organic materials – stone, wood, horn, bone, shells and etc. These organic materials are popular in used for stretched piercing jewelry. These materials are all organic and available for metal sensitive person. However, the organic materials are not recommended for fresh stretches, as they can contain bacterial inside. For the fresh stretches, you are recommended to go with other materials and wait until your piercing is healed. Then you can apply the organic materials on your piercing.

Acrylic: this material type is quite popular and come with an affordable price. However, this material type is not recommended for fresh stretches but can be used for healed piercings. This material is suitable for people who have skin sensitivity to other material types. However, the acrylic material is not recommended for a long term usage as it can cause allergy to each person as well as the metal allergy. You can try it on and then, see whether you got allergy on this material type or not.

Silicon: people are rarely sensitive to silicon, which make it a perfect material for everybody use. However, silicone is get dirty and collect dust in the easy way which can make people get allergy to the piece by the dirt on its body. You might have to take a special care if you want to use jewelry made by silicon.

General care for crystal, beads and gemstone jewelry

For your high standard craftsmanship jewelry made by Swarovski crystal, beads and other gemstones, you need to learn about how to take a proper care, cleaning and great way for your jewelry storage. The lifetime for your jewelry is always depended on your care.

Swarovski crystals are well known from their high quality, clarity and brilliance. Therefore, if you want to keep their look as new as their origin, you need to pay more attention on how to take care them. There are a few tips here for you to read and learn about crystal take caring step including,

1. Apply all lotions, oils, perfumes and other spray products including hairspray before put your jewelry on. This technique is not only applied for crystal jewelry, but also for all jewelry types.

2. Take all your jewelry pieces off before swimming in either a swimming pool or the ocean, sunbathing and other outdoor activities. Chlorine, salts and sunlight can cause any damage to your gemstones, crystals and precious metals like gold. For your outdoor activities, think about your jewelry whether you want to wear it on or take it off before hand.

3. Take off you jewelry before going to sleep. Never sleep with your jewelry on as all the movements when you sleep can cause stress to your jewelry pieces.

4. Keep your jewelry in a zip lock back. Place it separately from each others. By this way, you can avoid any scratches of each piece although you have put them in the same box.

5. Clean your jewelry regularly, using mild and warm soapy water. Then, rinse the piece with cool water and then let it dry properly with a soft cloth. For gemstone like opal, pearls, turquoise which are classified as soft stones are not recommended by this cleaning method. You need to take extra care on these soft stones, avoid all scratches that can occur at anytime.

6. If you want to polish your jewelry pieces, be sure to use a soft cotton cloth for this task. The wrong type of cloth will damage your jewelry in the easy way.

7. If your jewelry contains pearls, be careful with them. Put the piece on after finish applying your make up, perfume, hand and body lotions. Be sure that you have wipe your pearls with a soft, lint-free cloth as soon as you take them off. Never clean your pearls with ammonia solution or other strong detergent as it will damage your pearls directly. Be careful with the ultrasonic cleaner, never clean any pearls jewelry by this method. Mild soap in water solution is already enough for pearl cleaning.

Clean and care – sterling silver

If you look at your sterling silver and fine silver jewelry and saw tarnishes or any dirt on your jewelry, what will you do? The only thing you need to do is the clean them. For the fine jewelry, with 99% of silver, it will get dirty but not tarnish in the similar way as sterling silver jewelry. However, you still need to clean them anyway. The best way for cleaning silver jewelry is using warm water to clean all the dust off and let it properly dry, polish and keep it back in the box.

For sterling silver jewelry, you can go with the commercial liquid silver cleaner solutions that remove all the tarnish out, but it could also permanently damage other gems on that jewelry piece. Therefore, you need to carefully keep an eye on these steps to avoid all the damages to your gems.

After cleaning, you also need to polish your sterling silver jewelry after cleaning as well. In this step, you have to go with the right cloth for sterling silver jewelry. There are two part of cloth, for the jeweler’s rouge cloth. One side is rouge which contains a polishing compounds and the other side that contain nothing. The mark for rouge is used for polishing jewelry. You need to rub the jewelry first, then, give it a sparking polish with the other side, the yellow one. By these two steps, your sterling silver and silver jewelry will be back to the shinning state as the first day from the shop. When you finish both cleaning and polishing step, don’t forget to wash your silver jewelry to remove all trace elements from both polishing and cleaner agent from your jewelry piece. Then, let it dry properly and keep it back into its box. Cover each piece with small clothes or in separated pouch to avoid contact of each piece in the box.

Regular cleaning of your silver and sterling silver jewelry is recommended even you are rarely used your jewelry piece. However, every time when you finish using the jewelry pieces, just wipe them or clean them with small piece of soft clothes before put it back to the box. This is the basic clean and care for your jewelry piece, to last with you for the long time. Photo by 925e.com

Basic cleaning tips for your sterling silver jewelry

Sterling silver is made of pure silver mixed with copper with the proportion of 92.5: 7.5. The combination between these two metals improved the sterling silver quality suitable for jewelry maker. Sterling silver is easy to get starch and make a mold into any shape and become very popular for many people today.

The use of sterling silver as jewelry ornaments; silver rings, pendants, chains, earrings and bracelets make them expose to any chemical which can damage the silver metal directly. The sterling silver jewelry will get the shade of gold and black color with chemical damage. However, you can prevent this chemical reaction based on your regular basis.

Firstly, you need to choose the right cleanser. Keep away of ammonia, alcohol, bleaching reagent and acetone from your sterling silver jewelry as these chemical reagents can damage the metal. Make sure that the cleansing solution you choose do not contain any of these chemicals. Go with the mild cleanser, free from these chemicals for your regular cleaning process.

Secondly, choose the specially designed brushes for jewelry cleaning propose only. You might also either use a baby toothbrush or mushroom brush for its soft bristles to clean your sterling silver jewelry.

For the cleaning process, you should start with dipping a mild cleanser into warm water. Then, brush on your sterling silver jewelry with gentle care. Make sure that the sterling silver jewelry ornaments have been thoroughly cleaned using both cleanser and brush.

Lastly, the final step for this regular cleaning is about the drying step. After cleaning, make sure that you have dried your sterling silver in a proper way. Put the jewelry ornaments on a proper cloth for jewelry dry propose. Make sure that you use only a cotton cloth, which will not damage the jewelry pieces. Let the piece dry properly before keep it back to your jewelry box.

Base on this regular basic cleaning, you can be sure that your sterling silver ornaments will stay with you for a longer time. Every time you wear your jewelry, it will get dusted and damaged by chemical touch. You should at least clean it after used, to prevent primary damage on your jewelry and extend its jewelry lifetime to stay with you.