How to bring back to life time-altered Silver Jewellery.

Get ready to bring back to life your old silver jewellery.

Whether you like to match each outfit with a different piece of silver jewellery or you only wear silver occasionally, it is very important to maintain the jewellery properly so you can enjoy their beauty for a long time.

In its pure form, silver is soft and easy to shape, so to obtain the hardness required for making jewellery it is mixed with other alloys. Thus the name Silver 925 has its origin from the fact that in the mixture there is 92,5% pure silver and 7,5% other alloy.

Pure silver (999) does not oxidize, but as mentioned before Silver 925 (Sterling Silver) is used for making jewellery. Pure silver is too soft to be used as such.

How to clean Silver Jewellery at home:

1. Water and soap: cleaning of silver jewellery can be done with a mixture of warm water and dishwasher liquid (which doesn’t contain any phosphates or ammonia)

2. Solution consisting of 6 parts water and 1 part ammonia: Apply this solution on the jewellery using a soft haired brush. Then rinse with warm water and dry it with a soft cloth.

3. Cover the inside of a heat resistant container with aluminium foil and place the jewellery inside. Add one or two tablespoons of baking soda (optional: add a little salt) and pour hot water. Let the mix react for at least 5 minutes. Then rinse the jewellery with water and dry with a soft cloth.

4. Boil a few (peeled) potatoes using not too much water. Separate the potatoes from the water and let the water cool down a bit. Then soak the jewellery for approximately 5 minutes. Next step is to wipe the jewellery clean with a soft cloth until it gets the desired shine.

5. Mix half a cup of lemon juice with a teaspoon of olive oil in a bowl. Soak a microfiber cloth into the obtained solution, wipe and polish the silver. Once the silver is polished rinse with water and dry it.

The most efficient method to clean silver is to use a special cleaning solution. But if you do not have that at hand, then you can always try the methods described above.