Silver Jewelry Care Basics

Silver jewelry is more popular than ever. These days, I wear twice as much silver as I do gold but, tarnished silver is such a turn off especially if it can happen overnight. Storing your silver jewelry and how to care for these pieces can be daunting but it's actually quite easy if you know how.

Causes of tarnish and corrosion:
Humidity, naturally emitted sulfur from silver, chemicals in clothing, food (onion, egg, oil based products, salt, milk, vinegar,acidic foods ) wool, felt, anything with rubber or rubber based(rubber bands), latex, skin oils, makeup, perfume and hair products (gel, hair color, hair spray) and more. Some things tarnish silver instantly. Hair color turns silver black in a second. I learned the hard way.

Jewelry Boxes and Storage
How you store and protect your silver jewelry is very important.
What most don't know is that it's not difficult or time consuming if you just follow a few guidelines.
Sterling silver jewelry must be stored in a dark, dry place away from direct sunlight and heat. All jewelry, need air circulation and silver is no different. Silver should be stored where each piece has space for itself without other jewelry under or on top of it. This allows for the air circulation as well as protecting it from scratches and other potential damage.
Never wrap or store your silver jewelry in:

• Paper
• Plastic wrap (baggies OK)
• Cotton
• Cardboard
• Unlined wood jewelry boxes

All silver will slowly tarnish with age regardless. This is part of the beauty of silver and a nature's antiquing. Remember, old silver items are usually worth more if they have that natural patina that only comes over time. If you clean them, they can actually lose value. There is a difference between natural aged patina and that horrible metallic smelling inky black colored thing that's tarnish or really corrosion(silver rust). You can actually feel the difference too.

OK, so you don't want your silver jewelry to tarnish or should I say get that ugly unnatural black inky color quickly. None of us do.

Here are the basics for Cleaning & Polishing
You should consider whether you wish your silver to develop a natural patina or not before cleaning your jewelry.
Best way to prevent tarnish is to wear jewelry and to store properly.
For great ideas on storage and jewelry boxes, please read, The Truth about Silver Jewelry and Anti Tarnish Jewelry Boxes.

To clean lightly tarnished pieces or pieces that you want to continue aging:
Wash in warm water and a mild dish soap(phosphate free) on a soft sponge, rinse and dry thoroughly with a soft cloth. This works great on many heavily tarnished pieces too.
To clean aging silver: Go light on the soap and just gently run the sponge over pieces you want to continue aging.
Rinse and dry thoroughly with a soft cloth.
Caution: If your jewelry has gemstones, be very careful when cleaning. A cello sponge is fine to clean with but, nothing more abrasive.

To clean heavily tarnished pieces:

1. In a large non metallic bowl , (larger than the silver you want to clean),
2. Place a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of the bowl shiny side up.
3. Place silver on top of the aluminum foil. The silver must come in contact with the aluminum foil.
4. Pour boiling water into the bowl, enough to the cover the silver.
5. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of baking soda over the silver.
6. Soak for up to ten minutes,
7. Rinse with water and dry well.

Not everyone wants to take off jewelry when taking a shower, swimming or before bed. You don't need to. What you do need to do is make sure it's rinsed in clean water after swimming and there is no soap residue after a shower. Periodically do a quick cleaning with soap and water and you should be fine. I wear a pair of earrings all the time and they have never tarnished. I do take them out when I get my hair done and if I use hair spray, I throw a towel around my neck to protect my chains and cover my ears with a hand. The little extra effort has saved me cleaning time in the long run.

For storage:
You don't need an anti tarnish jewelry box. There are pros and cons to anti tarnish boxes and the cons outweigh the pros in my book. There are some easy inexpensive ways that allow you to store your jewelry tarnish free in any jewelry box you want. To read more on anti tarnish boxes and tarnish free storage for your silver jewelry, please read The Truth about Anti Tarnish Jewelry Boxes and Silver Jewelry.

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