Jeweler Tips: Cleaning Your Jewelry
In this new blog series we will share some helpful care tips about your jewelry. These tips and tricks come right from our in-house goldsmiths at Brent Miller Jewelers.
The first tip we wanted to share with you is about: Cleaning Your Jewelry.
We always invite you in for a complimentary spa treatment for your jewelry and recommend visiting us at least once a month. Let’s find out why!
Cleaning your jewelry makes the items look bright, shiny, and sparkly again! Who doesn't love to see their diamonds sparkle? Our jewelry spa treatment helps remove built up dirt and grime that gets stuck in your jewelry, which can make the metal and stones look dull. Did you know that built up dirt can cause clasps and hinges to not work properly? Depending what gets stuck in your jewelry, it may not be good for the metal or stones. For example, if you clean with harsh chemicals while wearing jewelry, these chemicals can damage and wear down precious colored stones, or cause the metal to become brittle. Click here to read more about activities that can damage your ring.
We recommend stopping by a minimum of once a season to have your jewelry professionally cleaned complimentary in our store, even if you clean your jewelry at home. We recommend at least once in the summer to remove built up sunscreen/sand/etc., before the holiday season, after the holiday season, and a spring cleaning. When our jewelry professionals clean your items for you in our spa, we are able to get out more dirt and grime than you can at home. We have special tools in our jewelry spa specifically to clean jewelry. After cleaning your items, we fully inspect your jewelry. When the jewelry is nice and clean we can see if stones are missing or loose, which you may miss if your items are dull from built up dirt. We can see if you're missing prongs, or if the metal on your pieces is wearing thin. We will advise you on any repairs your items may need to ensure your jewelry can be continued to be worn and loved for years to come.
*As a side note, if you're planning on passing on precious family heirlooms, we highly recommend having the pieces cleaned and checked before doing so. People wear and take care of jewelry differently. Because of this, if you're passing on family heirlooms, we may recommend repairs that the pieces may not need otherwise if you personally were to continue to wear them. For example, if you're passing on your engagement ring to be given to someone else, we may recommend replacing the center head, retipping prongs, or putting on a half shank. We want to ensure that the jewelry will be in great, like new condition and be able to be worn and loved for years to come by its newest owner. But, depending on the state of the ring, we may not make the same recommendation for you to continue to wear the ring because it may still be able to be worn for years without any issues, based on how you take care of it.*
So whether you stop in once a season for a regular cleaning and inspection or follow our at home care tips here, we’re sure to set your fine jewelry pieces up for the spa treatment they deserve.
Are there tips and tricks you want to know? Leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post with any tips or tricks you want to learn. They may just be in our next Jewelers Tips blog post.