Sterling Silver Aftercare
General Care
After purchasing some beautiful sterling silver jewellery, over time it will tarnish unless you look after your pieces to keep them looking like new. All sterling silver is made up of 925 parts pure silver and 75 parts other alloys. It is a beautiful material both to work with and wear but contact with the air around us will cause a chemical reaction and over time tarnish it.
Keeping it look like new is fairly easy to do. Here are a few tips…
Take off your sterling silver jewellery when showering, bathing or swimming. Avoid getting chemicals, perfume, moisturisers, sun cream or cleaning products on your jewellery.
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Cleaning
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Soak your sterling silver jewellery in a few drops of washing-up liquid and hot water for a few minutes. Use a soft toothbrush to give it a little gentle scrub to get into all those hard-to-reach places. Rinse off the soapy mixture and dry thoroughly with a soft, non-abrasive cloth. Finally, buff with a jewellery polishing cloth for best results or a soft non-abrasive cloth.
Alternatively, mix the bicarbonate of soda with some warm water to make a paste. Apply to your sterling silver jewellery and leave it on for a few minutes.
Gently rub the paste with a microfibre cloth to clean it off. You can use a small soft brush or soft toothbrush for the little hard-to-reach areas.
Rinse the paste off with cold water, dry thoroughly and buff using a non-abrasive soft cloth or a jewellery polishing cloth.
For extremely tarnished pieces, I use a great household cleaning remedy, again using Bicarbonate of Soda (although I use baking powder more often). You can find a helpful video showing how to clean them using this method here.