Silver jewellery can tarnish and discolour over time particularly if left unused. As silver is a soft metal, jewellery is not made of pure silver but an alloy with other metals, sterling silver is 92.5% silver and is the highest quality. The metals used to strengthen silver jewellery vary but most silver contains small amounts of copper, unfortunately this can give the silver a slight yellow hue.

You may have had, or seen silver become black, this happens because of a reaction between the silver and the acid on the skin of the person wearing the jewellery. It is not an indication of poor quality silver, in some instances changes in diet can change this effect.

You can clean silver using a soft cloth (or a soft toothbrush) and soapy water or a regular silver cleaning cloth impregnated with silver cleaning chemicals. However, great care must be taken when cleaning any jewellery with stones; opals, pearls, turquoise, amber etc are relatively fragile stones and can be damaged by exposure to chemicals or excessive immersion in water.

DO make sure you completely remove any cleaning residue before wearing the jewellery again.

DO NOT ever keep silver jewellery in the same place you keep any copper jewellery or coins. Copper will cause the silver to change colour and will be difficult to clean

DO keep a piece of aluminium foil in your silver jewellery box  this will react and change colour instead of the silver.

 DO NOT wear your jewellery whilst swimming as chlorine reacts badly with silver and can require a jeweller to polish it for you.

DO be very careful if you use a dip to clean your jewellery, do not leave the jewellery in longer than the manufacturers recommendation and never partially submerge an item as this can cause ‘tidemarks’. Both of these situations could be difficult and expensive to resolve and depending on the item value may not be worth it.

DO make sure you have the plug in when cleaning your jewellery over a sink! (recovering items from the Ubend is possible but lightweight items may just disappear down the drain forever)

Perfumes and hand creams can react with silver jewellery and cause it to blacken

Plated jewellery should only be cleaned gently with a soft cloth and soapy water because the plating on jewellery can be as little as 1 micron thick is does not take much to wear away the plating and expose the underlying metal. For this reason it is best not to wear plated jewellery constantly as this will dramatically shorten its wearable life span.

Sometimes you may see jewellery that says ‘Gold Layer’ this is where a fine sheet of gold is wrapped around the item and soldered in place then polished smooth. Gold layer is thicker than gold plate and consequently lasts longer.

Gold, platinum, steel, titanium, ruthenium and palladium – these metals are none reactive and do not need cleaning as they will retain the look they had when purchased.

IF IN ANY DOUBT DO NOTHING AND CONSULT WITH A LOCAL JEWELLER. It is far better to do this than to risk damaging a piece of jewellery you love.

 

GEMS

Most gems can be cleaned gently in soapy water with a very soft toothbrush (take care as this can scratch softer metals). If you have a lot of jewellery you may want to invest in an ultrasonic cleaner as this will do away with some of the elbow grease. Do not expect an ultrasonic cleaner to make your jewellery look like new, it is great for cleaning and loosening dirt especially that trapped in nooks and crannies of the jewellery but you will probably still need to give it a gentle scrub. Always rinse well in clean water and dry before wearing or storing.

You can make a homemade cleaning solution of one part ammonia and six parts water if you prefer this over soapy water.

Do not ultrasonic – opals, pearls, emeralds or porous stones such as turquoise – do not clean Pearls with anything just wipe with a soft cloth.

Emeralds and opals are affected by temperature and chemicals it is therefore best to not clean these stones yourself or only use warm water and a soft cloth.

Opals are porous and contain a small amount of liquid which can freeze if they are worn outside the clothing on very cold days, this could result in the opal breaking or in extreme cases exploding. Therefore it is best to wear opals inside clothes (ie don’t wear an opal brooch on your coat) and protect them from extremes of temperature change.

Stones such as amethyst can fade if left out in the sun for long periods of time to protect the colour of any amethyst jewellery it is recommended that you store it out of direct sunlight or inside a jewellery box.

With all jewellery it is best to keep it separate so that it isn’t rubbing against other pieces and getting scratched and damaged.