Resin Jewellery Care Instructions
Resin jewellery is pretty hard-wearing but to get the best out of your pieces and ensure they last a lifetime please try to adhere to the following advice. This will keep your pieces looking their best and save you having to pay for the resin jewellery to be replaced.
Scrapes
Try to avoid bumping and scratching or sleeping in your resin jewellery. This could damage your jewellery piece. If your piece has an accident, pop us a photo and we will give you some advice. We can to repair or recast for a fee, including pieces from other makers, so long as the resin has not had a reaction to something.
Water
Do NOT submerge your jewellery pieces in water. Resin is NOT waterproof, only water resistant. So please remember to remove your jewellery before showers, swimming, washing up etc.
Sunlight
Store your jewellery out of direct sunlight. Prolonged exposure to direct sunlight can cause the resin to discolour and soften.
Smoking
If your piece is in regular contact with smoke it will usually yellow. However, some of our smoking resin jewellery clients have worn their pieces for years without discolouration.
Chemicals
Avoid exposing your jewellery to harsh chemicals and cleaning products. This includes perfume, hair spray, cleaning solutions, nail polish remover, antibacterial hand sanitiser etc. Solvents will react with the epoxy and cause it to become scaly, yellow, chip or break down completely.
Silver Jewellery Care
Silver will usually tarnish eventually. We often use Argentium/935 or 940 silver which is 1% purer than sterling silver and is more tarnish resistant but may still tarnish if not cared for. Silver will tarnish faster under certain conditions. Humidity, air quality (such as living near the sea), even body chemistry will affect how quickly it tarnishes. Some makers rhodium plate their silver, which hardens it and makes it tarnish-free, but that will wear off over time and leave a patchy effect. It would need to be re-coated.
Your order includes a little Tree of Opals polishing cloth for use on the metal. Nikki also sells these beautiful large polishing cloths and kits and silver care kits for professionals over on her other website, Keepsaker Supplies and they’re perfect for all your silver and gold jewellery, but be careful not to use it on the resin part of your piece. Gently rub it on your charm bead cores, cufflinks, stacking rings etc to bring out the shine.
You can have your silver professionally polished but they need to be careful to cover the resin.
Earring Care
Resin earrings shouldn’t come into contact with chemicals, heat or prolonged contact with water. If you have dangle earrings, you may be able to remove the resin part to sterilise the earrings with heat or sterilising liquid. If your earrings are all in one, we recommend cleaning them with cotton wool buds (earbuds) with hot water or hydrogen peroxide, being careful not to let it touch the resin.
When Resin Jewellery Care Has Been Forgotten
Our Sending Elements Instructions, FAQ’s and Terms and Conditions explain that you must only send a minimal amount of your elements such as cremation ashes, locks of hair and umbilical cord so if your piece suffers damage please get in touch to arrange a replacement or remake and we will give you a price based on photos.
If your piece has dulled or scratched (usually because of chemicals, perfume or scraping), you can apply a top coat with No Wipe Top Coat UV Nail Polish (click here). You will need a UV Pen Light or lamp to cure it. If this doesn’t work out for you, we can always remove this if necessary. Usually for a repair it is easier for us to remake the piece from scratch, recycle the metal from the first piece and return the original resin stone/charm/sphere.
If your piece has yellowed then it will need to be remade from scratch; please be very very careful to follow all the instructions above to keep it looking its best for as long as possible.
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