how to care for your jewellery

It is important to properly care for Sterling Silver jewellery to keep it looking as beautiful as the first day you received it. To care for your silver jewellery, it is important to be conscious of how you store, wear, and clean your jewellery.

 Tarnishing

Tarnishing, also known as oxidation, is caused when oxygen or sulfer comes in contact with sterling silver. It gives it a darker colour. The oxygen in the air will tarnish sterling silver so storing your jewellery correctly will minimize this. Here are a couple of tips on how to care for your silver;

• Store jewellery pieces individually in an airtight container or bag.

• Place in an area of low humidity

What to avoid whilst wearing your jewellery

Wearing your silver jewellery regularly can actually help prevent tarnishing since the oils from your body have a cleaning effect. Some activities however can have a damaging effect on the silver. Please remove your jewellery before doing any of the following activities;

• Using household cleaning supplies.

• Sunbathing

• Swimming

• Spraying hairspray or perfumes.

• Putting on Lotion and Makeup

How to keep your jewellery clean

The most effective way to clean your silver or gold vermeil jewellery is to use a silver polishing cloth (available from most supermarkets).

Avoid using silver dip on any jewellery that is gold plated or has any stones, engraving, or oxidized parts.
 Gold Vermeil 

Gold vermeil is simply a layer of gold on top of sterling silver.The gold vermeil we use for our jewellery is 14ct and has a thickness of 3 microns.

To preserve the gold layer on your jewellery it is best to avoid emersing your jewellery in water ie. whilst bathing or washing up.

For care of gold vermeil please follow the same rules as for sterling silver.

Beaded bracelets

To avoid over-stretching, when putting your bracelet on roll the bracelet over your hand rather than pulling to stretch it. When taking your bracelet off, do the same. You should remove your bracelet before showering, bathing, swimming, sleeping or playing sports.  Gemstones can be fragile so please protect your bracelet when you can from bumps and scrapes.

Storing your bracelet

Keep your bracelet in the box we provide when you are not wearing it and keep it separate from any other jewellery. To keep your bracelet clean and free from dust use a polish cloth.  Please do not use any cleaning products on your bracelet.

hallmarking

Precious metals such as silver and gold are rarely used in their purest form but are instead usually alloyed with other metals. This makes them more durable and easier to work with. Sterling silver, for example, usually bears the fineness of 925 - this means it contains 92.5% by weight of pure silver, and 7.5% of another metal alloy, usually copper.

However, it isn't possible to detect an article's precious metal content by sight or touch. Therefore, if an article is described as being made of or containing precious metals, it is a legal requirement in the UK for an Assay Office to hallmark them as such.

Hallmarks are marks applied to precious metals to indicate the amount of pure metal in the alloy. They were traditionally applied by striking with a punch, but are more commonly now applied using lasers.

I am registered for hallmarking with  The Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office in London, which began hallmarking in 1327 and is the oldest Assay Office in the UK.

A hallmark is made up of a series of marks which are applied together to articles made from platinum, gold, palladium and silver.

These marks together mean that the article has been independently tested in order to guarantee it conforms to the legal standards of purity or 'fineness'. They also show where the hallmarking was done, what year it was marked, and who the sponsor or 'maker' is.

The first part of any hallmark is the maker or sponsor's mark, which is a series of between two and five letters in a designated 'shield' shape that is unique to each individual.

My own mark contains my initials SLS
Not all my work will be hallmarked though; only those pieces which contain an amount of silver above a certain weight require a legal hallmark. For silver this is anything over 7.78g. For gold and palladium the value is 1g, and for platinum 0.5g.