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Protect Your
Diamonds
Protect Your
Gems
Protect your
Gold
Storing Your
Gems |
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Cleaning Diamond
Jewelry
Cleaning Colored
Stones and Other Jewelry
Cleaning
Emeralds
Cleaning
Opals
Cleaning &
Caring for Pearls
Cleaning
Sapphires and Rubies
Cleaning
Quartz, Garnets, Topaz & Others
Professional
Cleaning |
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Protect Your Diamonds
We know it’s hard to always take your rings off, but
it is better to keep your diamonds and other stones away from
cleaning detergents, hand creams, and yes, even shampoos.
All diamonds love grease. They are very attracted to it. (Do
you know that even at diamond mines they use beds of grease
on conveyor belts to make sure they don’t loose a single
diamond mixed in w/ the dirt? The diamonds will actually adhere
to the grease! It’s true.) So you can imagine washing
the dishes, your hair and doing your makeup will be drawing
not only the oils from your hands & hair, but your food,
cleaning products, makeup, cleansers, moisturizers & body
creams. This list also contains sunscreens, tanning creams
& oil. How many times do you put hand cream on in one
day? It is a pain to have to remove your rings all the time,
but you may really enjoy the effect your clean diamond jewelry
has on you… not to mention the people around you. |
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Protect your Gems
Be careful when using hairspray and perfumes. Put all your
makeup and sprays on before putting on your jewelry. Otherwise
the sprays will leave a sticky film on your pieces and dull
them. Additionally, hairspray and perfumes/colognes (containing
alcohol) are damaging to gems such as pearls, emeralds, opals,
amethysts, coral, etc. Also, watch out for detergents with
abrasive substances since they can scratch jewelry metals.
Heavy Activity which might subject a gemstone to sharp blows-such
as gardening, working with hand tools, or playing sports-may
also damage a gemstone. Diamonds are also susceptible to damage
from an impact, which might cause them to chip or crack. |
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Protect your Gold
Household bleaches contain chlorine. Chlorine should never
come near your gold jewelry. You may be just quickly cleaning
the toilet as guests may be arriving or heaven forbid the
mother-in-law, but that chlorine could pit your gold and attack
solder joints in your ring! So use Gloves! |
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Storing Your Gems
Diamonds and Gems can scratch other gems as well as scratch
your platinum, gold and silver mountings. Diamonds can definitely
scratch your other pieces not excluding other diamonds. So
if you use a jewelry box, keep your stones from touching.
Use bits of cloth to help. Try not to use tissue paper unless
it is jeweler’s tissue, which does not have the acids
to oxidize platinum, gold and silver. Regular tissue can scratch
soft gems and gem metals. However, you can also keep rings
in soft jewelry pouches with a little piece of soft cloth
rapped around each ring. Do not put more than one item in
each pouch. See Storing Pearls below for more information.
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| OK, reality sets in; we’re not exactly
perfect so why should our jewelry be immaculate? There’s
still hope for you and your jewelry, yet… |
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Cleaning Diamond
Jewelry
The safest and most effective home remedy to clean your diamond
jewelry is with warm water, mild soap and a soft toothbrush.
You can use mild soap that may contain ammonia or better yet
make your own using 1 part ammonia and 6 parts water.
Rinse well in hot tap water or Ethyl Alcohol. Never use rubbing
alcohol it contains oil and will leave diamonds dull and spotted.
Abandon the old wives tale — toothpaste. Toothpaste
can scratch the gold and grit will get caught behind the prongs.
Home Ultrasonic Cleaners
Home ultrasonic cleaners are best used for karat gold jewelry
without gemstones. The ultrasonic may also be suitable for
some diamond-set jewelry; however, the intense vibrations
can loosen gems. DO NOT use the ultrasonic on porous gems
such as lapis, coral, pearl or dyed gemstones.
When cleaning Diamond Jewelry at home use a plastic bowl
on a table in case a small stone comes loose. If you decide
to use the sink, make sure it is stopped up properly. A
water pick can do wonders on rinsing. Also, you can buy
a home Ultrasonic jewelry cleaner kit at your local drugstore
that includes the ammonia-based solution. Read instructions
carefully. It will warn you on what type of stones and metal
can go into its cleaning solution.
The secret of the jewelry trade is no real secret. Ammonia,
ammonia, ammonia! Jewelry cleaning solutions, professional
& commercial grade contain ammonia. Maybe Costas (the
father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding) was right, you can
use Windex on everything! Well almost everything…
Be
careful with opals, pearls, emeralds, tanzanite, amethyst, and citrine
since they are soft stones and can’t be placed in ammonia based solutions especially if when the solution is heated.
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Cleaning Colored
Stones and Other Jewelry
After wearing your colored stone jewelry and before putting
it away, use a soft cloth to wipe away oils and dirt. Before
using any soap or cleaning agents ask a professional first
with unknown gem stones. |
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Cleaning Emeralds
Emeralds are sensitive to Heat and can crack easily. Gently
cleaning with a soft cloth and water pick can do wonders.
This can be used for all colored stones that you are unfamiliar
with. Better to be safe than sorry. |
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Cleaning Opals
Opals are primarily made of water. Did you know you could
ruin an opal just be keeping it in a window where sunlight
comes in strong. So it would make sense not to use ultrasonic
and steam heat to clean your stone. You should never keep
your black opals in a hot dry climate if possible. Ironically
they come from hot climates. They will literally dry out and
may even start turning white, otherwise known as crazing.
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Cleaning &
Caring for Pearls
Pearls were made by nature: water, and natural essence that
comes from an oyster’s discomfort. They are a delicate
gem that should be worn with pride and love.
Storing
Pearls
When wearing pearls, at the end of the evening take a soft
chamois or flannel cloth and wipe off your own body oils and
salts to keep them lustrous and gleaming before storing them.
Keep pearls in lined jewelry case or a soft velvet pouch and
isolate them from other jewelry. Not even the matching pearl
earrings, unless they have a separate spot within the box,
case or pouch. Gold posts, rings and other gems can scratch
the pearls. The pearls may rub against themselves, but if
they aren’t moved around a lot, they should be fine.
Cleaning Pearls
When cleaning pearls, never use cleaning solutions, from a
jewelry store or from your own cabinets. They will eat away,
discolor and ruin these soft stones or possible stretch, discolor
or eat away the silk or nylon keeping the necklace together.
For very soiled pearls use a Soft damp cloth and rub them
gently, but do not soak them. Then take a dry cloth and leave
them to air dry before storing them. This is for the sake
of the silk/nylon stringing them together. Your pearls should
have a knot in between each pearl to keep them from scratching
each other and wearing the other pearls down. Also, if the
string breaks you shouldn’t loose the entire strand.
Restringing Pearls
After long periods of wear your pearls may need to be restrung.
The silk or nylon has a tendency to stretch and get soiled
from constant wear. If the strands are stretching that can
allow more contact with the neighboring pearls and damage
them or lead to stress on the silk and break apart. Take them
to a professional pearl and beads stringer. Likely a nearby
jewelry store will have someone or can advise on someone you
can send the pearls to. It shouldn’t be expensive depending
on the work. If needed, then and only then will the professional
clean the pearls with more than just warm water. |
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Cleaning Sapphires&
Rubies
Sapphires and Rubies are the second hardest gems to diamonds.
That is why they can be cleaned similar to diamond jewelry.
Use that soft toothbrush, with 1 part ammonia and 6 parts
water. Rinse only with warm water (using a water pick is even
better). No Ethyl Alcohol. |
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Cleaning Quartz,
Garnets, Topaz & Others
Use warm water and the toothbrush on other colored stones
like quartz, garnets & topaz. If they are particularly
dirty and you must use soap; the store-bought jewelry cleaner
may be available but read the directions before applying to
any stones. Always ask a Jeweler or gemologist when in doubt.
NEVER use sonic, steam and detergents on pearls, emeralds,
coral and opals. Other gemstones may also be too soft for
the cleansers and home sonic cleaners. Also be mindful that
emeralds, amethyst & tanzanite are sensitive to temperature
changes.
There are polishing cloths specifically for karat gold
or sterling silver. Do not use paper towels; they can scratch
the metal.
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Professional Cleaning
Depending on the frequency of wear, visit your jeweler
at least once a year for a professional cleaning. They will
check the prongs for wear and security as well as the gemstone
itself for any damage or needed re-polishing. For pearls,
it is necessary to re-string them periodically to protect
against breakage and possible loss. Most jewelry stores
have ultrasonic cleaning equipment & steam cleaning
gear as well. This makes the hand cleaning seem obsolete.
Ultrasonic Cleaners “send high frequency sound waves
though a detergent solution and the vibrating fluid remove
accumulated grim and dirt in hard to reach places.”
Ultrasonic cleaners are safe for most diamonds. The jeweler
may not want to use this technique on colored stones outside
of sapphires and ruby due to the softness of other stones
and the effect it may have on the color. Warning! Sonic
cleaners, both home and professional models, can shake stones
loose from their mountings, especially smaller side stones
and stones that are already loose.
Steam Cleaners are powerful and use high heat and pressure
to literally blast away the dirt. It’s quickness and
ease makes short work of cleaning in any conventional way.
However, colored stones such as emeralds, tanzanite, and
amethysts are sensitive to extreme temperature changes and
should not be exposed to steam cleaning. Diamonds respond
well, but the risk to loosing small stones are much greater
than even the ultrasonic.
Make sure your jeweler checks the stones before placing
your piece into their sonic cleaners or using steam cleaners.
All jewelry metal is malleable and often bends or breaks
under normal wear (see All About Jewelry under Jewelry Metals).
Side stones are hit more often and are harder to set making
them particularly vulnerable.
If your jeweler identifies some problems like loose broken
or missing stones or worn prongs after inspecting your piece,
you’ll have the chance to decide on what to do before
more damage is done. You may decide to go ahead with a repair
or just clean the piece fully aware of the risks. This way
there are no surprises and no one is at fault.
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