Gemstone jewelry is special and intimate. It’s either gifted by somebody close to you or purchased with your hard-earned money. In both circumstances, your connection with the gemstone fine jewelry piece strengthens over time.
As time passes, you start considering the jewel a part of your body and want it to last a lifetime. But for the jewel to last a lifetime, it needs to possess a certain level of hardness and durability. It needs to be sturdy enough to withstand all the chipping and snagging that a gemstone jewelry piece typically witnesses every now and then within its lifetime. Also, whether a jewel lasts a lifetime depends on how you preserve it.
Similarly, there are other imperatives that need to be taken into consideration to make a jewel stand the test of time. We’ve gathered some expert tips to maintain your fine jewelry. Let’s take a look at them.
5 Tips To Take Care of Your Fine Jewelry
Get It Identified & Appraised
There are so many techniques to clean gemstones. However, they differ from one gemstone to another. There also are certain common cleaning techniques that apply to most gemstones, but you can’t find out whether they’ll work on your gemstone jewelry piece without having the proper knowledge. That brings us to our critical first step: getting your jewel identified and appraised by a trusted and reputable jeweler. A jeweler can accurately assess the quality of your jewel and ascertain whether it has certain inclusions that might be prone to specific cleaning processes. Also, a jeweler can determine which type of cleaning technique will best work on your jewel. After getting your fine jewelry identified and appraised, you can proceed with the cleaning process.
Don’t Rely Too Much On Your Gemstone’s Hardness Score
People rely too much on their gemstone’s hardness score. They think that a gemstone with a high hardness score on the Mohs scale can resist all types of exposure. However, that’s not true. The hardness of a gemstone is its ability to resist scratching, and nothing more. A high hardness score of your gemstone doesn’t mean that it can resist exposure to heat and mechanical cleaning. Let’s understand this with an example. Let’s say your fine jewelry is fashioned with diamonds. Now, diamond is the hardest of all minerals. However, it can still have inclusions that might have devastating reactions to different chemicals. So, it’s better not to completely rely on the high hardness of your gemstone.
Has Your Gemstone Undergone Any Treatments Or Enhancements?
Gemstone treatments work wonders in enhancing the appearance of a gemstone. However, treatments can also have a negative impact on gemstones. Some of these treatments or enhancements might negatively interact with certain cleaning and care techniques. For instance, if your fine jewelry is encrusted with emeralds, you should ascertain whether they’ve undergone any treatments or not. That’s because jewelers often use oils to fill tiny fractures in emerald gemstones to improve their transparency. However, cleaning such emeralds using ultrasonic cleaners might damage the gemstones. Therefore, it’s always good to know which type of treatment or enhancement has the center stone of your jewelry piece undergone.
A Cleaning Technique That’ll Help The Most
You can clean your fine jewelry with warm water, detergent, and a soft toothbrush. However, you should only use a toothbrush with soft or extra-soft bristles. Nowadays, you can easily get toothbrushes with soft or extra-soft bristles. Such bristles will not do any harm to your gemstone. However, toothbrushes with medium or hard bristles might damage your gemstone jewelry piece. Many people try to clean their gemstone jewelry pieces at home but end up damaging them by using a toothbrush with firm or hard bristles. Firm or hard bristles can also scratch jewelry settings fashioned with certain metals.
To Get The Best Out Of The Cleaning Process
If you want to make the best of the cleaning process, let your fine jewelry soak well in the solution of warm water and detergent. You should not be in a hurry to take out your jewelry piece from the solution and start scrubbing it with a toothbrush. Let the jewelry piece soak in the solution for a few moments before jumping to the next step. Once this is done, you can use a toothpick to pick out all the dust and grime that has accumulated on the jewelry piece over time. But remember, you should pick out the accumulations gently.
Conclusion
Caring for your fine jewelry is not a one-day task but something that should be undertaken every now and then. Like many other things, jewelry also needs timely cleaning and care to maintain its beauty. Now that you have some tips to maintain your fine jewelry, it’s about time you gave your fascinating jewelry piece a cleaning session.
