Cleaning Silver Jewelry

Silver jewelry is elegant to flaunt. It is cheaper than gold and diamond but in looks and appearance, it is no less than that. But it is prone to tarnish on exposure to saline water or air. So it needs to take great of it.

Store it carefully:

Try to avoid tarnish on your silver jewelry. To avoid tarnish store it carefully. Your silver jewelry tarnishes when exposed to air. This occurs more quickly in damp and foggy weather and even sunshine, but is inevitable in any climate. Tarnish first appears as a golden hue on your sterling silver then turns to black. Always store in treated paper or cloth, or plastic zip lock bags made of Mylar (turkey cooking bags) or polyethylene.

Some plastic contains sulfur compounds which can cause tarnish faster. Never use polyvinyl plastic bags. Tiny zip-lock bags work great for each individual piece. Don’t store sterling silver jewelry on wood surfaces as wood usually contains acids that can mar the finish. Also avoid storing silver with other metals like pennies and rubber. Don’t wear rubber gloves when washing or polishing silver because rubber promotes tarnish.

Tips for cleaning silver jewelry:

• Use a non-abrasive polishing cloth to polish your piece regularly. Silver polishing cloths are available at major supermarkets, at hardware stores and at jewelry stores if you run out of stock.
• You can also use soap and water to clean your jewelry. But do not dry silver off with paper towels or tissues, always use a soft cloth. Paper towels might scratch your piece. 
• You can also clean your silver jewelry by using a mixture of Aluminum foil, water and salt (table salt, rock salt and even baking soda as it’s a natural salt as well). This is a really easy and inexpensive way to clean all of your silver jewelry. The aluminum with the salt and water acts as a magnet for the tarnish on the silver. Just drop a few pieces of silver jewelry in the mixture for a few minutes and then take it out and wipe it off – if it’s not too badly tarnished, the tarnish will be gone. If your things are really badly tarnished, it still works but you may have to repeat it a couple of times. Easy! And everything you need is usually right in the house (keep the jar covered when you’re soaking your small pieces).
• You can use a spray polish method to clean your silver jewelry. It is done by using a soft hackle brush or an expanded brush or a jewelry horse hair brush, dipped in a mild soap. Spray a good quality polishing spray on the tarnished jewelry and then let it dry out for a couple of minutes. After few minutes, wipe off with pure cotton or any other soft cloth. However, be careful to keep the spray off the porous gemstones. It is preferable to spray the cleaner directly on the cloth and then rub it on the area around the gemstone with the cloth rather than to clean it by spraying directly on the gemstone. Hence, to add sparkle and shine on the sterling silver Chains, use this method with the soft brush or soft cotton.
• Combine one half cup of warm water with a small bit of mild liquid detergent. A soft toothbrush may be used to apply the cleanser and to scrub the hard to reach areas. Rinse well. Use a soft cloth, such as a t-shirt to buff off any residual cleanser. Store silver jewelry away from other metal jewelry, preferably in a velvet lined pouch.
• Never dip your silver jewelry in ‘dip’ solutions or commercial cleaning solutions even though it may say that it is for silver jewelry. If you have Bali Silver beads as elements in your jewelry (those beads with some nice dark groves in them), dip cleaners will remove the black accents on them, as well as discolor the silver over time. Gemstones may also be damaged from the dip solution.

These are the ways by which you can clean your silver jewelry. Try any one of it. I hope you will get a good result. But most importantly store your jewelry in a proper way.