Silver Jewellery Care Instructions
Silver 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. Even anti-tarnish and Argentium silver can tarnish with chemicals and occasionally with your body chemistry. Mass-produced silver jewellery is often rhodium plated which prevents tarnish but handmade silver jewellery usually isn’t so if it’s handmade it needs to be cared for and sometimes cleaned.
Silver contains copper, 925 sterling silver has 925 parts per thousand of solid silver and 75 parts copper. 935 and 940 Argentium contains more silver, much less copper and some germanium. It’s more tarnish resistant and hypoallergenic.
Scrapes
Try to avoid bumping and scratching or sleeping in your 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 with our repair service, please just get in touch for a quote first.
Water
Fresh water is fine for silver and gold but please remember that resin is NOT waterproof, only water resistant, so if it has resin then remove it if going in water. Please remember to always remove your jewellery before swimming and hot tubs or anything with chlorine.
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 silver and cause it to tarnish. Sometimes it can even tarnish from your natural body chemistry.
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 always use a bit of warm soapy water and a toothbrush, or a silver polishing cloth like the one we send with orders. For scratches you can order a silver polishing stick from our other company, or book a repair slot here. 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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