KEEPING YOUR JEWELRY SHINY AND BRIGHT
Sometimes it can be very difficult to keep your diamonds and gold jewelry clean on a daily basis. "The diamond is the hardest natural substance on Earth. It can cut any kind of rock or metal, but only another diamond can cut a diamond. In fact, to burn a diamond, it must be heated to between 1290-1650 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet the oil deposited from the mere touch of a human finger can cause dirt to collect and make this nearly indestructible gemstone quickly lose its sparkling appeal." (GIA)
Many times our busy lives bring along dirt and dust, combine that with our skins oils makes for not so shiny and dingy. We have some tricks to keeping your jewelry clean and beautiful with simple solutions and tools.
First of all, diamonds are like a magnet for our skins oils and basic dirt. In our daily lives and routines, our diamonds are similar to a sticky surface that attracts oils, particles, and daily dirt--which accumulates fast and can quickly take away the sparkle and luster of your diamond leaving it looking cloudy.
CLEAN YOUR DIAMOND REGULARLY
Keep it simple and consistent is our motto when it comes to keeping your diamond and gold jewelry looking it's best.
At home, we recommend using warm water with a drop of mild dish soap, soak for 5 min then use a soft tooth brush to brush all around the diamonds and setting. Rinse the jewelry, but make sure to keep it away from the drain in your sink! Sometimes the little "tuft end" toothbrushes with the tiny bristles work best for smaller crevices that can attract the most buildup. The bristles of the tuft end brush go to a point which helps with cleaning around prongs and settings with small hard to get to areas. The toothbrush should be new and reserved exclusively for cleaning your jewelry. Use it to clean hard-to-reach places like the back of the diamond, which tends to collect the most oil and dirt.
Be careful with fragile settings, like older prongs in antique jewelry or a tension setting where the diamond is held in place by pressure from the shank, these SHOULD NOT be scrubbed hard with a brush and no harsh chemicals on them either. The new cloths that are sold with cleaner inside the cloth are a good way to wipe off your pieces without hard scrubbibg.
THINGS TO AVOID WHIOE CLEANING YOUR JEWELRY
Avoid all household chemicals and cleaners when cleaning your jewelry. It is a common problem when you use harsh chemicals and abrasive products that can scratch and harm your jewelry. Chemicals like chlorine can damage some of the metals used to alloy gold for diamond settings and abrasives can scratch gold and other metals.
Another jeweller here… In the shop/workshop: ultrasonic (no emeralds, no pearls etc etc), check everything looks okay regarding claws and setting, polishing (grease and rouge for plat, just rouge for gold), back to the ultrasonic, high pressure steam clean, wrap in acid free tissue.
At home we recommend: bowl of warm water with a drop (single) dish soap, soak for 5 min then soft tooth brush all over the setting. Rinse in clean water, again a bowl, don’t need to go anywhere near that risky drain with your nice jewellery. Someone on here mentioned drying with a hair dryer to get all the water off which I quite liked but a paper towel will do just as well. Then we sell these little polishing clothes which have a white polishing compound in them, probably sold under different names in different countries. But they are incredible. Can’t do what the goldsmith can but they come up looking 80% as good. The brand we have is called connoisseurs.
Sometimes an ultrasonic cleaner is necessary to remove encrusted dirt on diamonds. By sending low frequency sound waves through a solution, ultrasonic cleaners cause vibrating fluid to remove accumulated dirt and grime. (GIA)
Our clients have purchased ultrasonic machines, they get excited about what their diamond ring or piece of jewelry looks like after the ultrasonic, they tend put their jewelry in daily. The vibration of the ultrasonic at too high of frequency or too often can loosen stones from their settings or chip the stones. This is where we see loose stones and damaged jewelry. We had one client that did not put enough water into the ultrasonic, which resulted in damaging the jewelry and burning up the ultrasonic.
While you can purchase a professional ultrasonic cleaner for $150 or less, you should be aware that not all gems and jewelry can be safely cleaned in it.
What to avoid with the ultrasonic:
- Gemstones with surface-reaching breaks that have been filled with a substance such as oil, resin or a glass-like material
- Organic gem materials such as pearls, coral, ivory, or amber
- Gems that have been coated with a non-permanent substance like plastic or wax
- Some heat-treated gemstones
- Gems that are susceptible to heat and temperature changes whether they are treated or not. Some of these gems include tanzanite, feldspar (sunstone and moonstone), fluorite, iolite, kunzite, lapis lazuli, malachite, opal, topaz, turquoise, zircon and others.
EXCESSIVE LIGHT AND HEAT CAN DAMAGE STONES
We are concerned with our skin when we are out in the sun, so we protect it with sunscreen. Too much light and heat can affect a colored gemstone’s durability and overall color over time. We see damage to gemstones with too much exposure to light and heat with amethyst, kunzite, topaz and shell cameos. Pearls and other delicate materials, such as ivory, will bleach under extreme exposure to light. Other gems, especially amber, can darken over time when exposed to too much light.
Take care when cleaning your pearls; pearls are delicate and porous and vulnerable to peeling and chipping. “They should only be cleaned with a microfiber cloth and a little bit of water,”
TAKE CARE TO PREVENT BREAKING
Prongs bend and wear over time, gold is a stong metal, but it can bend and wear. If prongs get too loose, you risk loosing your stone. You should bring your rig in from time to time and have the prongs checked, along with checking them on your own but using your fingers to feel if the stone is loose.
Take your jewelry to be fixed, don't do it yourself, often times you can make things worse then when you try to bed or fix your piece.
WEAR YOUR JEWELRY
All of this discussion may make you think twice about wearing your diamond jewelry all the time. Well, wear it, because jewelry likes to be worn, and you have your jewelry--so wear it! Just get into the routine of cleaning your jewelry and keeping it bright and shinny.