Caring For Your Jewellery

Here's just a little more information on how best to care for your Silk Purse Sow's Ear jewellery, and keep it looking its best. As ever, if there’s anything you aren’t quite clear on, or we don’t cover here, please do feel free to get in touch and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Caring for Photo Lockets

It is very important that you do not expose your locket to water, or damp environments. As such, we recommend that our lockets are not stored in the bathroom, or ever worn during showers, baths or whilst swimming.

Water or steam would ruin the photos inside the locket and may also cause tarnishing of the metal on the locket or chain.

We would also recommend avoiding getting perfume or creams on your locket, so apply these before wearing your locket.

Caring for Brass

Brass is a material which, when exposed to air, humidity and natural body chemicals (in other words, everyday life) will gradually darken in colour from bright gold to bronze. This degree of darkening is also known as the patina of the brass.

We use a lot of vintage brass in our designs, at different levels of patination – some are intended to be worn as fairly bright gold, while others look best nice and dark. If you would like to, the bright gold colour of brass can be easily restored by using a straightforward brass cleaner, or alternatively a paste made from a mixture of vinegar and salt. The cleaning is all in the rubbing, so use plenty of elbow grease to get a nice shine.

Though many of our customers also like to leave their brass jewellery to grow old gracefully!

Caring for Sterling Silver

Here are some tips on how to prevent your sterling silver jewellery from tarnishing over time:

Limit Exposure: Remove jewellery before showering, swimming, exercising, or applying lotions/perfumes.
Clean Regularly: Gently wipe with a soft cloth after wearing; store in a dry, airtight container.

Here are some tips on how you can give your jewellery a simple clean to restore it to his original state:

- Mix bicarbonate of soda with some lukewarm water to make a paste
- Gently rub the paste with a paper towel or microfiber cloth to clean it off
- Rinse the paste off with cold water and buff to dry for a polished finish

Please note that sterling silver can appear scratched over time due to wear and use
because it's a relatively soft precious metal (92.5% silver, 7.5% other metals like copper). Although its softness allows for intricate designs and easy repair, this does mean it is more prone to daily dents and marks. While harder than pure silver, it's softer than gold or platinum, so expect it to show minor imperfections (patina/scratches) over time, developing a unique character with use, which can often be buffed out
with a polishing cloth.

Gold Plated Chain

Many of the chains we use are gold-plated brass. Eventually over time, the fine layer of gold plate may rub off, exposing brass underneath. The time that this takes varies quite a lot between different people, but you can help to preserve your necklace chain by applying perfume before you put on your jewellery (or even better, avoid your neckline when you spray). It’s also a good idea to keep your jewellery dry and away from sinks, and to buff from time to time with a suitable jewellery polishing cloth, which can be bought cheaply and easily online.

Allergies

For customers who can only wear precious metals in their ears, we offer vermeil (gold plated sterling silver) and sterling silver options on some of our jewellery. If you have any questions about this please get in touch!