Art of Jewelry

We love our jewelry, and want it to last as long as possible. At Gonna Luv It, we get questions all the time from people who want to know how to care for sterling silver jewelry. Use these tips to keep your jewelry beautiful.

Keep your sterling silver away from toiletries. Lotions, perfumes, hairsprays, and more can coat your silver with a sticky residue that is very difficult to remove. We suggest that you think of your jewelry as a crowning touch. Don’t put it on until you have finished putting on your other beauty products. At the end of the day, take it off before you bathe. This will protect your fine jewelry from becoming dull and unattractive.

Household chores can cause small scratches in the finish, and harsh chemicals can damage your jewelry. This is a great reason to stop doing housework! If this excuse doesn’t work in your household, make sure that you remove your precious jewelry before tackling tough cleaning chores. And avoid chlorine bleach – it can damage the finish, weaken clasps, and loosen jeweler’s cement. Gardening can also cause significant damage to your jewelry. Wear gloves, or take your jewelry off before working on tough tasks.

Protect your jewelry from extreme heat or cold. Both temperature extremes can cause damage. Prolonged exposure to direct sunlight can cause damage to pearls and some gemstones, while the heat can melt jewelers cement, loosening your stones. Severe cold can actually cause fractures in certain gemstones!

Store your jewelry carefully. A jewelry box is a great choice, providing it has enough compartments for all your pieces. Each item should be kept in its own compartment. When metal rubs against other metal, or against gemstones, small scratches can result. This will destroy the luster of your sterling silver jewelry. Isolating each piece also prevents tangling. There’s nothing worse than seeking a necklace, and coming out with a tangled knot of metal and gemstones!

To keep your sterling silver looking its best, we recommend that you clean it. Over time, tarnish will build up. This affects the look of your piece, reducing its shine and adding a yellowish hue. Our article on How to Clean Sterling Silver can help you restore that bright shine, safely and effectively.

When buying fine jewelry, the three principal metals used in their design and making is silver, gold, and platinum.  By many counts, silver is the most popular of the three, and it has its own unique charm and beauty.  For one, gold may not be suitable to all skin color and shades.  In contrast, the warm white color of silver is suitable to a much wider range of skin tones, hair colors, and other physical attributes.  When it comes to high quality fashion jewelry however, it is clear that silver is the front runner.  A silver pendant reflects light and draws the attention of the audience.  It is at the same time, both sophisticated and classic, as well as hip and trendy.  Because silver is much cheaper than precious metals such as gold and platinum, you can afford to buy more than one piece that can be used individually or in the form of a set.  You can craft a truly individual look that expresses your personal sense of style and character by mixing and matching different pieces of silver jewelry.  Furthermore, the appropriate piece of silver jewelry can be used for both formal as well as casual looks.

Sterling silver chains and necklaces are some of the most popular pieces of silver jewelry in the market today.  When shopping for necklaces and chains, there are several issues that should be considered before making a purchase decision.  Silver chains have become quite popular and because of this increase in demand, designers have had the impetus to create more affordable, stylish and innovative designs.  At one time, jewelry was meant exclusively for fairer sex.  Today, you can buy silver jewelry for men, women and even children.  Silver chains fall under two main categories – those that are stand alone pieces, and those that will be accented with a pendant.  In the former category, the herringbone style is perhaps the most popular as it adorns the neck as a flat ribbon.  Because the chain is relatively flat, the jeweler can create a larger chain that is more conspicuous with a smaller amount of silver, and therefore more cost effective.  On the other hand, if you plan to use a pendant to accentuate the necklace, then you may prefer a simpler style of necklace so that the focus of the jewelry is the pendant and not the necklace.  In this particular case, you may want to choose a simple, cable style necklace that has interlocking links.  What ever style you choose, you cannot go wrong with the price and look that silver jewelry offers.

Sterling silver is commonly used to make silver pendants and other jewelry – both fashion and fine.  In fact, this metal is so versatile that it is even used to make men’s jewelry such as tie pins, cuff links, and bracelets.  Overall, the range of jewelry designs that use silver as the settings is quite astounding.  Silver has long been considered the metal to use to express your personal sense of identity and style, and is very often an easy and inexpensive way to add pizzazz to your attire.  Over the past several decades, the demand for and the popularity of silver jewelry has been on a steady rise.  It’s relatively low cost compared to other precious metals such as gold and platinum, and the warm and sober luster of this metal are the prime reasons why it is considered to be the most popular metal in fashion jewelry.  While gold continues to rank as the number one metal in fine jewelry, many find the yellow color of gold to be a bit ostentatious, and therefore prefer silver settings.  Silver jewelry today has come a long way since the first attempts at jewelry when the metal was extracted from the ore, melted into nuggets, and then strung together to form necklaces and bracelets.  Today, there are several variations of the metal that can be used to make jewelry.  Most people love the clean polished surface of silver, and this is the most popular finish for jewelry.  The more exotic oxidized look with areas of preferential blackening is created by treating the surface with chemicals.  If you are not comfortable with the high gloss finish, matte finish jewelry is also available on the market today.

Silver is a reactive metal in that it tends to reach with substances present in the atmosphere.  When this happens, the surface of the metal becomes dull and acquires a yellowish color.  With time, the color changes to shades of gray and then becomes almost black.  Atmospheric moisture, hydrogen sulfide and other chemicals tend to tarnish silver.  The best way to clean silver jewelry is to use a soft jewelry horse hair brush dipped in a mild soap.  Once cleaned, you can use a high quality polishing spray and a soft cloth to bring back the luster of the exposed metal.  If your silver jewelry includes gemstones or pearls or other delicate materials, make sure that the spray you choose is compatible with these materials too.  Never use paper towels or toilet paper to wipe jewelry.  Although these products may seem soft to the human touch, they typically contain wood fibers that can scratch and dull the surface of silver.