Jewellery can often be a substantial investment. What’s more, it’s there to look as good as possible for as long as possible. For these reasons alone, it’s worth spending a little bit of time thinking about the best way to look after your jewellery.
How To Care For Your Jewellery
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Often, you can extend the lifespan of a given piece significantly, by investing just a little bit of time, and abiding by a few simple rules. The biggest threats to your jewellery are tarnishing, scratches, and dullness. But how, exactly, can we guard against this trio?
Keeping Your Jewellery Dry
Water can cause precious metals to dull prematurely. This goes especially if the water contains caustic chemicals like chlorine. As such, you should take your rings off before you enter the swimming pool, or the shower (for the most part). Put them in a safe place that’s clear of any plug-holes.
Keep It Out Of Sunlight
Light and heat will reliably discolour gemstones. You can minimise this effect by storing items in a jewellery box in an indoor place when you’re not using them. If you have a safe in the bedroom, this tends to make the best spot.
Keep It Separate
If jewellery items are kept together, then you risk them scraping against one another. This goes especially if you’re storing jewellery made from different materials. The softer metal will be scratched by the tougher one.
Choose Your Cleaning Solutions Carefully
Certain types of cleaner will work better with certain precious metals and gemstones than others. Baking soda might work with silver, for example, but not so well with gold. One popular method of cleaning at home uses ultrasonic sound waves to vibrate dirt away. This will destroy organic materials like pearls, however, as well as remove the wax that’s often used to protect emeralds and malachites.
Be Careful!
If you’re doing an activity that might cause you to knock into things, then you should remove your jewellery. This means any physical exercise, housework, and even sleeping. To reduce the risk to particularly valuable items, you might wear them only on special occasions. If you don’t think that you’re ever going to wear an item again, you might take it to your local pawnbroker.
Put It On Last
When you’re getting ready to go out, it’s worth putting your jewellery on last. This will help you to avoid splashing it with nail varnish or perfume, and you aren’t going to accidentally knock it whilst it’s waiting around on the dressing table.
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