Sterling Silver Jewelry Care And Maintenance

By Marianne Branders for fashion-and-fine-jewelry.com

Sterling silver jewelry, just like your diamonds, gold and other fashion jewelry, need to be taken care of. Silver, like other pieces of jewelry, also tarnishes and loses its gleam when not properly cleaned and maintained. If you want to take good care of your sterling collection, keep in mind the few reminders below to help you maintain the sparkle of your jewelry.

1. Understand the nature of your sterlings. Being an alloy, this type of jewelry is combined with another metal, often copper, to harden and retain its shape. The combination's proportion is 92.5 percent fine silver and 7.5 percent copper. This is important to know so you apply the proper cleaning solution to your jewelry.
   
   
2. Avoid subjecting your sterlings to conditions that can cause tarnishing. Tarnishing is caused by the reaction among silver, oxygen and sulfur. Activities that cause this reaction include swimming while wearing silver jewelry and applying hair spray while wearing silver jewelry.
   
   If tarnish does develop on your sterlings, you can do a simple procedure of boiling the jewelry in a solution of sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate in a glass dish lined with aluminum foil. You can research further on the Internet on how to go about this procedure. Take note, however, that you can not do this with your precious time pieces like your Fossil watches or Rolex watches since the process may damage the watches' mechanism inside.
   
   
3. Store your sterlings in a proper place. As oxidation causes silver to tarnish, it is ideal that silver jewelries are stored in an air-tight enclosure. You can store the sterlings in an air-tight plastic container that is lined with soft cloth. The cloth will prevent your jewelry from developing scratches.
   
   
4. Clean your silver jewelry regularly. Cleaning your sterlings regularly and preventing tarnish is much easier than removing tarnish. Simple cleaning procedures include using warm water and mild soap and a soft toothbrush or cloth. Toothpaste is also an effective cleaner to keep your jewelry shiny and smooth.