Clean Old Jewelry and Bring Back the Sparkle and Shine
Face it. Even the most beautiful jewelry can often get dull, dirty, and out of style. But there is a quick fix to this dilemma. You'll be wearing your stones again in no time.
Contents
Steps
- Inspect the stones (using gloves if need be). No matter what kind of stone it has, you need to make sure it is not loose before you clean the piece. Take your finger or a hairpin (any small pointy object) and try to see if you can wiggle each stone around in its setting. If it does wiggle, then you can stick in thin paper inside it for a while.
- Make sure there is no foil on the back of the stone. If there is, 'do not immerse in water. It will lose its foil.
- Do a test cleaning. If your piece has small, foil-backed stones, you have to carefully wipe the tops of the stones with a damp cloth, being careful that no water seeps onto the mounting.
- Clean the piece. Assuming that there are no foil-backs and the stones are all secure, you must still proceed with caution at this stage. Test the smallest end of the piece by immersing it in a solution of 1/2 cup of warm water, 2-3 drops of dishwashing soap, and a couple drops of ammonia.
- Take the end out of the solution and gently scrub it with a soft toothbrush, and rinse the end under warm tap water. Be careful not to let the water fly onto the rest of the piece.
- Dry the end and inspect again. Is it shinier? Are the stones okay? If so, you can immerse the entire piece and use your toothbrush to loosen the grime and rinse the piece under warm water. Repeat as needed and dry.
- Use toothpicks and pipecleaners for really shining between stones.
Tips
- Gently wiping your jewelry with a moist cloth on a regular basis will prevent the need to deep clean.
- Make a Gemstone Cleaner Home Remedy with dish soap. Search the Internet for "Gemstone Cleaner Home Remedy"
- If you have a rouge cloth, use this to gently buff the metal surfaces
- Make Sparkling Diamond Potion with water and ammonia, and leave it overnight. Search the Internet for "Sparkling Diamond Potion"
- It's a good idea to store jewelry in an airtight baggy if you are not wearing it that frequently. This is especially important with silver, which tends to oxidize or become dark in the air.
Warnings
- Never use bleach on jewelry as it tends to make it dark-especially silver.
- Avoid cleaning a piece of jewelry which has loose stones.
- Avoid immersing foil back jewelry-this could wear off the foil.
- Be very careful with emeralds as they are oiled and detergent can remove it making the inclusions stand out.
- Coral, pearls and ivory should by wiped off with a damp cloth avoid detergents and ammonia. never use bleach on jewelry or toothpaste.
