Whether it is an old heirloom necklace from your grandmother or a 6-carat diamond engagement ring, everyone has a piece of jewelry that is near and dear to their heart. This article provides many helpful tips on keeping your jewelry looking snazzy and beautiful for many years to come.
Try making your own jewelry pieces. It just takes some tools and some materials to get started. More specifically, there are many kinds of materials you can use. You can use wire, string, beads, yarn, thread, glass, stone, metal, etc. The only limitation is your hands and your imagination, so have fun with it.
Don’t purchase used earrings without disinfecting the posts or ear hooks. Other people have been wearing them, especially true for vintage pieces, and there are plenty of germs lying around. Take some lemon juice or hydrogen peroxide, squeeze some onto a cotton swab and run it over the ear pieces of the earrings. This will kill the germs, making it safe to wear the earrings.
To make an outfit look more balanced, mix and match different kinds of jewelry. If you wear a statement necklace, you can pair it with some basic rings or bracelets. If you like to wear oversize rings, compliment them with a simple chain necklace. This will help to accentuate your more dramatic pieces and will keep your look from feeling like too much.
When buying jewelry, you may want to consider lab-created stones. Gems created in a lab can be just as beautiful as natural gemstones, but they are often less expensive. You may be able to buy a much larger lab-made stone for the same price as a smaller natural stone. If you have ethical concerns, lab-made is definitely the way to go.
If you are not too fond of wearing a wedding or engagement ring on your finger, you can always put it on a chain. This is a safe way to ensure your ring will not fall off. Also, by putting your ring on a chain, it will not be in the way of your daily activities.
Read all your warranties and guarantees. Carefully paying attention to all the details in both of these can help you prevent any major issues from coming up. If you find any issues in the warranties or guarantees, you can correct them before you take the jewelry you’ve bought out of the store.
While it’s easy to point the finger at the metals in your jewelry causing your skin irritation, it could be as simple as the jewelry needing a good cleaning. Since bacteria and dirt can build up on your jewelry causing irritation, a warm water and gentle soap cleaning is recommended to rid the irritants and hopefully the bad reaction as well.
Budget your jewelry purchases well in advance and stick to the price range you settle on. The jewelry store can be every bit as tempting as the candy shop, but you must resist the urge to splurge. Jewelry carries lots of memories and associations with it; you do not want to spoil a piece by spending so much that you regret the sight of it later.
When stitching peyote rings for your jewelry design, try stitching around a small dowel or pencil. This will help the peyote rings keep their shape while you are working on the jewelry pieces. They are also easily removable (just slide them out!). This works great for beginners who struggle with maintaining the shape of the rings and stitching at the same time.
Gold prices are higher than ever and are expected to continue rising. As a result, silver rings, bracelets, and necklaces in 92.5 percent silver are a better bet for your money. Avoid purchasing pieces that are made of so-called “German silver” or “nickel silver” as they contain little to no actual silver.
Storing jewelry can be the absolute death of its luster, even if you’re storing it in the box it came in. Avoid storing jewelry in only those manufacturer’s boxes and even store-bought jewelry boxes. If you’re storing your items long-term, wrap them up in an airtight container to ensure maximum protection. One of those zippered plastic storage bags, works wonders.
If you are looking for diamond jewelry of any kind, remember to ask if the diamond you are considering is “conflict free”. Diamonds that are not conflict free may have been indirectly the cause of a great deal of suffering and even death. Conflict free diamonds are mined, processed, and exported under exacting conditions that do not allow any illegal activity or violence.
As you can see, there are many different methods of maintaining jewelry depending on the type and quality. Hopefully this article has assisted you in discovering some tips and tricks. Every piece of jewelry is unique in its own right so no matter what type of jewelry you have, it deserves to be well taken care of!