When you have fine jewelry, a little maintenance is involved to ensure that your pieces stay stunning. The following are a few tips that will help you take care of your fine jewelry.
Cleanliness is Vital
If you want your jewelry to look great and last forever, keep it clean. You’ll have to learn how to clean antique necklaces and other antique jewelry in order to do so properly. Cleaning your piece right is going to take some work because each one is special.
You can use a jewelry cleaner with a soft cloth for many pieces. A piece with gemstones shouldn’t be cleaned with detergent because it can loosen up the stone, and that could put you at risk of losing it. For pearls, you can use a little olive oil with a soft cloth to clean. You can always have a professional jeweler clean your pieces to be safe.
Heat and Light Dangers
Light and heat can be hurtful to your fine pieces. If you want to make sure your jewelry stays as safe as possible, then you need to be conscious about the amount of heat that your jewelry is exposed to or the amount of sunlight.
Too much UV rays could end up degrading the natural color you’d see in gemstones, like amethyst, kunzite, and topaz. It should also be pointed out that even pearls and ivory can fall victim to too much sunlight. Heat is another natural element that could hurt your jewelry pieces. Some jewelry pieces like pearls or gemstones can actually dry out with too much heat, and that could lead to cracks.
Stay Away From Chemicals
The next thing you want to watch out for is overusing or misusing chemicals during the cleaning process. Some precious metals can be damaged or degraded if they are exposed to certain chemicals too much. Metals like gold, silver, and platinum could be damaged with ammonia, normal household cleaners, perfumes, cosmetics, and even lotions.
The same thing goes for some specific gemstones, mostly the colored ones. You want to remove your jewelry before jumping into a pool. You also want to remove jewelry when you are going to put some lotion on or when you are going to be handling your perfume. If you are going to be cleaning, then make sure you aren’t using aggressive materials to clean.
Always Handle With Care
It’s important that you start to think about when or where you are going to use your jewelry. You cannot simply wear it whenever and wherever you want because your pieces are not indestructible, no matter the quality. You shouldn’t wear your jewelry if you are going to do some construction work, because the chances of denting the metal or cracking a stone are high.
Avoid wearing jewelry at all if you will be performing some kind of manual labor. It’s also important that you don’t wear your jewelry if you are handling oil or if you are going to be spending time in the water or around bodies of water. Oil can make pieces looser, and you may lose the piece altogether. Water can always dislodge a gemstone if it’s loose.
Lastly, consider having your jewelry covered by an insurance policy. Should you have your items lost or stolen, your insurer will send a payout covering some or all of the financial loss.
A Professional’s Care Touch
Make sure you also do your best to take fine jewelry pieces to a professional jeweler (like this one at Jacobs, for instance). There is only so much you can do on your own, so you are going to have to leave some of the work to the professionals.
Here is where your pieces will not only be cleaned, but you’ll also have a chance to rescue pieces that might have been damaged or pieces that have a loose stone. When you do talk to a professional jeweler, be sure to get more care tips from him or her.
Taking care of your pieces takes time and dedication, but all your pieces are special. Be sure to always put in that extra bit of effort.