How to Properly Take Care of Silver

Happy Spring Taxco Silver Choker

Sterling silver jewelry continues to soar in global popularity. From silver bracelets and earrings to rings and necklaces – these items are synonymous with true elegance and perfect for all occasions. Like other precious metals, however, silver is not exempt from tarnishing or corrosion. In fact, oxygen and sulfur always comes into contact with sterling silver jewelry sets, pieces, and accessories. These elements bond to the surface of the items and cause them to appear dirty or discolored. This is why so many silver items lay dormant in countless jewelry boxes across the world.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to effectively clean, store, and prevent tarnishing for all your favorite silver items. In fact, these following tips and suggestions can truly restore the natural luster and shine of your silver. This helps to increase its value over time – while preventing the elements from gaining a foothold on your sterling silver pieces again.

Preventive Care Solutions

Whether for anklets, charm bracelets, or lavish and exquisite silver jewelry sets – did you know that wearing these items often can prevent tarnishing? In fact, the oils in your skin can help “clean” the silver and keep them looking shiny and robust. While this may seem a bit farfetched –leading silver manufacturers and brands have always encouraged clients and customers to wear their sets and accessories frequently. Simply placing these items in boxes or even glass cases can result in oxidization and tarnishing that can de-valuate your items and render them worthless over time.


Avoid Exposure

As with any precious metal or jewelry, contact with household chemicals can cause irreparable harm and damage. To effectively protect your fine silver and secure longevity, you must avoid excessive exposure to the following chemicals and elements:

·         Excessive perspiration, rubber, chlorinated water, and household cleaning solvents and solutions.

·         Any items that contain sulfur, including but not limited to mayonnaise, latex, wool, mustard, and onions.

·         Prevent corrosion and tarnish by removing your silver jewelry from the body when doing household chores, swimming, and especially sunbathing.
Keep silver away from lotions, cosmetics, hair spray, and even perfume. These are considered “enemies of silver” and are known to accelerate tarnishing.

 Storage Solutions

Silver is mainly tarnished by exposure to air –and the chemicals and elements found within. To effectively safeguard your items, you will need airtight plastic bags with anti-tarnish strips. These can be found at local grocery stores, while anti-tarnish cases are available at area jewelry venues. While bags

are a great storage and preventative care solution – NEVER store multiple jewelry pieces in the same bag. Remember, silver is a soft metal and contact with other pieces can result in scratches and abrasions.

Link or chain bracelets should be kept unhooked or unclasped to prevent scratches as well. If placing items in cases – try placing these boxes in rooms or areas that have lower humidity. This will prevent moisture from tarnishing the pieces – and you can even place pieces of chalk, activated charcoal, or silica gel in the storage areas to minimize tarnish and refortify protection.

Polishing Tips

Polishing your silver works well when tarnishing is not too severe. In fact, regular polishing (using commercial cleaners but not all the time) is considered the best way to clean oxidized silver – and preserve their natural shine and allure. As mentioned earlier, silver is soft and always susceptible to scratching. Therefore, you should use a special silver cleaning cloth to polish your items. These can be found online or at local jewelry shops – but other soft non-abrasive cloths will work as well. These, of course, must be lint-free flannel or microfiber based materials that will not harm your silver. 


Sterling Silver Jewelry Cleaners

When polishing your sterling silver jewelry, cutlery, or even tea sets – use long back-and-forth motions that emulate the grain of the silver. For example: use long motions for long grains and shorter ones for shorter grains. NEVER rub in circles as many people unfortunately do, as this will accelerate any existing scratches or abrasions. You can also use a Q-Tip for small and intricate areas, and always use different parts of the cloth to avoid placing any tarnish back on the silver.

Professional Silver Care Cleaners

Unless your pieces are heavily tarnished – or you simply don’t have time to clean them – professional silver cleaners are always available. With years of extensive industry experience, these specialists have the tools and expertise to remove tarnish and restore your pieces back to normal. They also specialize in cleaning vintage, fragile, or valuable silver pieces, accessories and sets as well.

Commercial Silver Cleaners

Commercial silver polishes are easy to find and use. However, they do have a myriad of drawbacks – and should never be extensively used to clean or polish silver. For one, the vapors from silver polishes can cause health problems, and can even be fatal if inhaled in a closed or unventilated room. The powerful cleaning solvents founds in commercial cleaners may also need to be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly manner. This prevents the cleaners –after they are done – from contaminating groundwater.
In addition to health issues, extensive use of commercial silver cleaners can actually cause more harm to your sterling silver pieces. This is because they remove the anti-tarnish coating and valuable patina within items. While cleaners do secure a temporary shine or buff – your silver will tarnish more quickly since their surfaces have now been breached and broken down. According to silver experts, it is simply best to use anti-tarnish cloths (dry) for regularly cleaning your sets and accessories.        

Día de los Muertos



Dancing Couple Taxco Silver Pendant-Brooch

Dia de Los Muertos  - or Day of the Dead – is a popular holiday celebrated throughout Mexico. It is also celebrated by people of Mexican ancestry living in other countries – namely the United States. As a multi-day holiday and festival, Dia de Los Muertos pays homage and respect to friends and family members that have passed away. The holiday unites friends, loved ones, and neighbors in celebrating the passing of relatives – instead of mourning them. In fact, the celebration consists of dancing, extravagant costumes and silver jewelry to keep away evil spirits, and especially great food and drink.  In 2008, UNESCO officially honored this annual Mexican holiday, which helps support the spiritual journeys of the deceased and is marked by nationwide dances, parades, and much more.

Holiday Origins and Traditions



Flirty Catrina Taxco Silver Earrings

Dia de Los Muertos, of course, is a public holiday in Mexico – that dates back to the 16^th century. Before Spanish colonization, the celebration primarily took place in the beginning of summer. However, the holiday became associated with October 31, November 1, and November 2 to correlate with the Western Christian traditions of Halloween and All Saints/Souls Day. Traditions between the Western and Mexican holidays also complimented each other – especially when it came to donning extravagant costumes and even sterling silver jewelry to ward off evil spirits or apparitions. Like in other Mexican cities, Taxco celebrates the holiday with traditional private altars called ofrendas. These are built to honor the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods or snacks of the departed.

Like other faiths and religions, Mexicans also mark the holiday by leaving possessions of the deceased at their respective graves. This practice is even observed in other nations where they also leave ornaments and even jewelry to mark the passing of their loved ones and friends. These items are then given to the cemetery staff to keep or to submit as charitable donations.

Celebrated Across the World

According to scholars, the modern Mexican holiday dates back hundreds of years to an Aztec festival. This event was dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, and was primarily observed by the indigenous people and tribes of Mexico. The holiday has since spread across the word – and many cultures have utilized Dia de Los Muertos as a model for honoring their own relatives and friends that have passed on. In Mexico, the holiday has become a national symbol, which is taught at several schools. The celebration is also intertwined with All Saints Day, which is associated with the Catholic Church.

Holiday Observance Jewelry


Decorated Mexican Silver Skull Ring

Like Mardi gras and other popular holidays, Dia de Los Muertos is observed by wearing vibrant and innovative jewelry. While families gather to honor the dead –they also celebrate with parades, music, foods, drinks, and national festival parties. These events feature people of all ages wearing costumes, along with innovative and creative jewelry to express their feelings and pay respect to fallen loved ones and friends. Some of the more popular jewelry sets and accessories include but are not limited to:

* Colorful Day of the Dead charm bracelets.
* Sugar Skull earrings, anklets, and sparking necklaces.
* Cross Skull charm bracelets, rings, and chains.
* Sterling silver ornaments and lavish jewelry sets.

From Taxco, Mexico, to Spain and America, Dead of the dead jewelry continues to soar in global popularity. With so many styles and designs to choose from, families are truly able to cherish their memories of their love ones with singing, dancing, music and specially jewelry and accessories worn in their honor.
The Mexican Day of the Dead celebration is similar to other culture's observances of a time to honor the dead. The Spanish tradition included festivals and parades, as well as gatherings of families at cemeteries to pray for their deceased loved ones at the end of the day.

 

Organizing your Precious Jewelry

So you are a big fan of jewelry, you may not have anything that cost you a fortune exactly but apart from money value there is often tremendous emotional value attached to these pieces. There is your first pair of sterling silver ear hoops your mother bought you for your 13^th birthday, the exquisite vintage Mexican onyx pendant you saved up for ages to buy so you could wear it to your prom, or perhaps the handcrafted silver bracelet set with Malachite your husband gave you when you were first dating. It doesn’t matter what a broker would give for the trinkets you have. For you it’s a treasure that makes you feel richer than the Queen of England.

The question arises: how do you organize all these pieces so they don’t get damaged and to make sure you have no problem finding them when in a hurry? This is what I am going to help you out with in this article. Read on below for some great tips on how to organize your jewelry:

Tip No. 1: Put all the jewelry on a table and carefully look through it. Are there any pieces that are broken? Anything that is mismatched or belong in a museum? Get rid of it.

Tip No. 2: The pieces that can still be redeemed despite being broken or damaged, fix them!

Tip No. 3: Clean the sterling silver jewelry with a silver polish. Another amazing way of cleaning it is to rub it with toothpaste. Do it the old fashioned way using a toothbrush. Reach into all the cracks and details. When you are satisfied, rinse and dry.

Tip No. 4: If you own any gold or platinum jewelry, clean it by diluting 2 tablets of Alka-Seltzer in approximately 250 ml water (a glassful I should say). Dip the jewelry in this solution for 2 minutes.

Tip No. 5: Again, for gold or platinum jewelry, you can make a solution of warm water and dishwashing liquid and soak it. After several minutes, take out the jewelry and rinse it. Dry with a lint-free cloth.

Tip No. 6: Like items must be stored together. You can keep especially expensive or fragile items in their original packing. It is best to keep silver jewelry in jewelry pouches or in jewelry boxes that have thick felt lining.

Tip No. 7: Invest in a small but nice looking jewelry box that you can store everyday jewelry pieces in. Like your rings and small studs and hoops in. It would also make for an excellent ornament for your dresser.

Tip No. 8: To store your gold, copper, platinum or silver chains run them through a straw ensuring you fasten the clasp. This will prevent any knots from forming.

Tip No. 9: Get a mug tree for hanging your sterling silver necklaces putting the longer ones on the top-most branches.

Tip No. 10:  If you are looking for a really cheap but safe way of storing your  jewelry, specially silver jewelry, since it can be scratched easily, and it can tarnish very quickly, get ziplock bags. Buy really small ones to separate the different pieces and you’ll still be able to see what’s inside giving you easy access.

Jewelry and Clothing - Securing the Perfect Combination

Jewelry and clothing simply go hand in hand. While we define our particular styles through the clothes we don – accessories also play a pivotal role in showcasing our distinct and unique flares. From sterling silver pendants and charm bracelets to necklaces and even anklets – jewelry will always have a place at the fashion table. In fact, jewelry helps us tap into a myriad of fashionable trends – and while part of the overall style equation – how does one secure the perfect combination between apparel and accessories? According to industry experts, it is simply a matter of knowing which jewelry set or pieces works and effectively matches your personal décor.

Each Jewelry Piece Must Match the Occasion – and your particular taste

While there are no rules set in stone, today’s trendier styles tend to be less conventional than decades past. In fact, the digital age has seen a strong resurgence in wild and almost outlandish outfits and jewelry sets. No truer is this then when it comes to the fashion Mecca of the world – New York City. In recent years, the Big Apple has seen a strong return of charm and silver bracelets hanging on many a wrist. These accessories seem to go with practically anything you want to wear, including the sexiest nightclub outfits to conservative business suits.

Another past player has returned in a dramatic way as well. This, of course, is the traditional brooch, which is now being sported by countless men and women across NYC and the world. The brooch represents style and sophistication – while truly capturing the allure and essence of traditional jewelry wear. In a nutshell, no matter which jewelry piece you select, it should reflect your innermost tastes and preferences. However, it should also match your outfit and correlate with the occasion at hand.

Less is more – or is it?

When it comes to syncing your jewelry and wardrobe, the “less is more” approach always seems to work. In fact, you do not need overly large or extravagant jewelry just to make a fashion statement. For example: wearing a thin silver or gold necklace with a black dress is the perfect way to showcase style and class. The same can also be said for men that wear geometric or futuristic watches to enhance their look and appeal. In many ways, the more streamlined, polished, and centralized your look – the easy it is on the eyes.

There are some, however, that completely disagree with the current trends and norms. In fact, many of these individuals – both women and men – love testing the waters of jewelry and clothing combinations. This includes wearing long necklaces over ties for men, along with mix and match sets for women. Another popular constant is to choose jewelry that not only matches your clothes but also your skin tone. In fact, metals and gems can truly illuminate your natural skin tones, while enhancing your inner and outer beauty as well. There are a myriad of jewel stones and gems to select from: sapphire, amethyst, gold, and especially silver.

Handcrafted Mexican Silver and Turquoise Choker

While turquoise can bring out the natural color of your eyes, gold is considered perfect for brunettes. Silver seems to go with anything and everything – including casual apparel, sports attire and even the latest evening and social wear. From lavish and elegant dresses to trendy and fashionable suits, jewelry can truly accentuate and enhance the look of any designer or homemade outfit. It’s simply a matter of finding the right items and accessories that not only looks right – but makes you feel great as well.