Hi. I’m Wendy from Adeler Jewelers and today were to going talk about how to best clean your jewelry. This is one instance when I’m going to tell you that the store bought jewelry cleaner is a really good idea. They are very affordable and they contain an ideal combination of cleaning agents for most pieces of jewelry. The reason that they are ideal is not only because of what they have in them but also because they establish the routine of cleaning your jewelry on a daily basis. We recommend that you put your jewelry cleaner in your bathroom where you will take maybe your pieces of jewelry off, put them inside the jewelry cleaner and then go about your shower and putting lotion on and all of that. When you come out, you are in the routine of pulling it out, brushing it underneath the water and putting it on and you are ready for the day.
In the event of the need for creating your own jewelry cleaner, a couple of these things that you can use are a household cleaner that you want to dilute in a very mild proportion, one portion household cleaner to 10 parts water is more than sufficient or you can use a pump soap that has a detergent agent but no lotion of that nature inside. You can also use rubbing alcohol in the case of diamond jewelry. The most common culprit for making your jewelry look unattractive is when it is dirty. Diamonds, as a great example, actually clutch to grease or oils that are in your hands and in your fingers and all of that. Its actually used in the mining process of diamonds. They put all of the rough on to belts that contain grease and everything that contains diamonds actually clutches to those belts. So, that’s a colorful reminder that when you wear your jewelry, once you’ve touched it and you’ve folded your hands and done all of that it will get dirty. So, what we recommend is that you take a toothbrush and your jewelry cleaner, either hand made or store bought and you brush the reverse of the stone, you brush the top of the ring and you do this underneath a flow of water. We find it also helpful that you put a towel or washcloth of some nature on the underside of the basin, so that its not a hard material in case it drops; and that you make sure that you close all places where your rings can escape you in slippery hands and drop into the toilets or into the drains of your bathtub.
Now, a real good reminder with regard to jewelry cleaner is that you don’t want to put porous materials like coral, opal or pearls into any jewelry cleaner that may contain harsh chemicals. In the instance of cleaning these, you’re going to want to use a very mild soap and water. For cleaning your pearls, you’re going to want to take a paper towel, a little bit of pump soap and a little bit of water and simply rub them lightly to remove perspiration and lotion. When you’re cleaning emeralds, you’re also going to want to remember that although there are faceted stone and the general rule of thumb is with faceted gemstones they can go into jewelry cleaners. Emeralds are an exception to that case. So, you’re going to want to treat these as you would in opal or any of the porous gemstones like turquoise or coral.
When cleaning a piece of jewelry that contains both pearls and diamonds, you’re going to want to use gentle pressure and a toothbrush to try and brush around the diamond area but you’re going to want to try and keep this as much out of water as you can because the pearls are mounted in a peg mechanism that has an adhesive and that glue will sometimes be disrupted if it gets wet. So, for cleaning your sterling silver jewelry you may want to find a jewelry store that carries a glove similar to this which contains a cleaning agent in the glove and you put the glove on and it makes it very easy to then pick up your jewelry and buff it. So, this is, as you’ll notice, a very useful tool for polishing your silver and your metals. You will also find that they have jewelry cleaning cloths that contain rouge in the inside and they also are very useful and handy for polishing your gold and your metals. The most important thing to remember about cleaning your jewelry is that it is the consistency not the agent that you use that is going to make your jewelry sparkle and look beautiful and it truly is a shame to own a gorgeous piece of jewelry, keep it so dirty that it doesn’t reflect its beauty. Thank you.
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