Jewelry Care -- Lee Spivey Designs

ABOUT STERLING SILVER:
Pure silver, also called fine silver, is relatively soft, very malleable and easily damaged so it is commonly combined with other metals to produce a more durable product. The most popular of these alloys is sterling silver, which consists of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. Although any metal can make up the 7.5% non-silver portion of sterling, centuries of experimentation have shown copper to be its best companion, improving the metal's hardness and durability without affecting its beautiful color.

Sterling silver is a precious metal, just as gold and platinum are precious metals. It is also the most reflective. Silver is the whitest and has the greatest luster of all the metals.

ABOUT GOLD-FILLED:
Often people will confuse gold-filled with gold-plate. There is 100 time more gold in gold-filled than gold-plate. Although plated jewelry cannot generally withstand the test of time, it is not unusual to find a gold-filled pendant that is nearly seventy five years old!

14kt/20 gold-filled wire is created by taking a layer of 14kt gold and bonding it through extreme heat and pressure to a core of semiprecious metal (usually brass). The end result is a 14kt tube with a brass core which is strong, durable and resistant to tarnish because of it's gold content.

JEWELRY CARE INSTRUCTIONS:
With proper care, your fine quality sterling and gold-filled jewelry will last a lifetime. To minimize scratches and other damage, store your jewelry in separate compartments in your jewelry box or in separate cloth pouches or plastic bags. The plastic bags that are provided with your purchase make great storage bags as well.

Remove your jewelry before showering, using cleaning chemicals, or applying make-up or hairspray. Soap film can make your jewelry appear dull so be sure to rinse your jewelry well after using soap.

Sterling silver tarnishes from the interaction of silver and sulfides in the air. This is a natural process. Higher sulfide levels are associated with humidity an/or air pollution. Therefore, the more humid the climate, the faster sterling will tarnish.

To remove tarnish from sterling silver, you can use a polishing cloth or a liquid cleaner. Simply take your polishing cloth and gently rub or buff the piece until the tarnish has been removed. I recommend using a "Sunshine Polishing Cloth." The Sunshine Polishing cloth will leave a bit of protective anti-tarnish coating on your piece to keep it shining longer. Although gold/gold-fill will not tarnish as sterling does, it will often lose its shine through daily use. These cloths can also be used to clean and restore a shine to gold, gold-fill and other metals. Sunshine Polishing Cloths are available at the bottom of this page and on every jewelry page.

Your other cleaning option is a liquid cleaner. I've tested several and I've found one, in particular, to be the best. Just dip your jewelry in the liquid for 1-2 seconds,pull it out, rinse with water, and it's clean. It's incredibly quick and easy! Be careful when cleaning jewelry with porous stones like pearls and turquoise. In that case, I use a q-tip soaked with my cleaner and wipe around the stones. After it's rinsed and dry, I might use my polishing cloth to gently buff the piece. Although this is rarely needed, the polishing cloth does help to bring out more of the shine.