Love Your Jewelry
Removes tarnish from Sterling silver, gold, gold filled metals
There are many ways people can clean jewelry, however, I have found through my many years of experience that these two methods work best. The first method is to use a polishing cloth/pad (I provide a complimentary pro polish pad with every sale). The second best method is explained below.
Ingredients:
- TBL Baking soda
- TBL Salt
- TSP Powder laundry detergent (I use Tide)
- Filtered water (not tap). The chemicals in tap water may inhibit the cleaning action.
Tool/Materials:
- Pie plate
- Teaspoon
- Soft toothbrush
- Paper Towels
- Aluminum foil
Instructions:
Line a flat dish, like a pie plate or quiche dish with aluminum foil, shiny side up.
Place jewelry items on top of the foil, not touching each other. Chain should not overlap itself.
Heat enough filtered water to cover the highest piece. This should be hot (not boiling).
Carefully, pour the water slowly into the dish. If you pour quickly, the items will shift and move to touch each other. If this happens, separate the items again with the back end of a toothbrush. (The water is hot). The slow pour will bring stones up to temperature slowly and not shock them.
Sprinkle the mixture onto everything. I use a small scoop, but a teaspoon will work just as well.
Make sure each piece has some of the mixture on top of it.
The fizzy action will last just a minute or so. Let stand a couple of minutes after the fizzing stops.
Take each piece out and scrub the silver with baking soda on a soft toothbrush.
Rinse well with filtered water.
Dry with paper towel.
I usually will put items on a new paper towel and let stand over night to dry thoroughly. Then, I put them into a plastic bag until I’m ready to wear or display.
Note:
I make a large container of this and keep it on hand.
- Inspect each piece for black spots. This is tarnish that deposited on the piece, not onto the foil. If this happens, repeat the process and it should go away. This is what happens when pieces touch each other.
- This process is safe for stones like opal, lapis or turquoise and even pearls. Please use CAUTION: If the water is too hot and poured too quickly, this could shock and crack the stone.
- Elements in oxygen/air causes tarnish on jewelry, so storing your jewelry in a plastic bag will help to prevent tarnishing.
Patinas:
- Caution: Do not use this method of cleaning or polishing cloth/pad on items with a patina. Patina is a surface coloring and rubbing and/or scrubbing could remove the color or blackening.
By: Beverly Fox
