Cleaning your Sterling Silver jewelry

Cleaning your silver jewelry has never been easier. It's incredible how easy it is to clean your jewelry without having to resort to chemicals. If you do a Google search, you'll find lots of methods for cleaning your metal jewelry, especially your silver jewelry. The one process that comes up over and over is the baking soda method, why, because it works and it's simple. This is the method I use.

One thing to remember about this method is that it works very well on your tarnished silver but not so well on your base metals like copper, brass or silver plate. This process will dull these metals. For brass and copper, there are other recipes to follow. I would advise that if your jewelry has a mix of metals, you may want to use a polishing cloth on the mixed metal portions. On that, I've tested cleaning brass and silver in the brass cleaning method, and it does just fine on silver as well.

Important note: you do not want to use any of these methods on jewelry with soft stones like turquoise, amber, pearls and opals. For these pieces, you should use a soft polishing cloth and a bit of elbow grease. You also don't want to pour boiling water over glass beads, especially hollow beads or the bubble style beads as these beads are more fragile than a solid glass bead.

Start with a ceramic or pyrex dish and line it with tin foil, shiny side up. Add your metal jewelry, ensuring the silver is touching the foil. Add a couple of tablespoons of baking soda and then add boiling water to cover the jewelry. There will be a lot of bubbling as the mixture reacts, but it will settle in a couple of minutes, and you should notice your jewelry becoming tarnish-free. Give the dish a jiggle to shake things up a bit then leave it until the water cools.

If you are cleaning glass bead jewelry you can use hot water from the tap or the kettle. I've even been successful with cold water from the tap, the process doesn't bubble and takes a little longer to clean but it works and you won't risk cracking your glass beads.

note: If possible, remove the metals (chains, earwires) from your glass beads and clean the metals separately.

Remove the jewelry and rinse thoroughly to remove any baking soda residue then dry well.

Storing your silver jewelry in airtight bags like a ziplock will reduce how quickly tarnish can develop.

Cleaning your Brass & Copper Jewelry

In a dish, dissolve a teaspoon of salt with a 1/4 cup of white vinegar. (note: lemon juice can also be used with or without the vinegar). Add your jewelry to the mix and let it sit for a few minutes. Depending on how tarnished your metal pieces are, you should see the tarnish disappear within a few minutes.

When you are satisfied with the brightness of your metal, remove the pieces from the solution and rinse thoroughly. Dry well with a soft cloth.

If your jewelry is still tarnished or has a dull finish after the initial cleaning, take a soft cloth and dip it in the salt and vinegar mixture and add a dab of baking soda to your towel to develop a paste. Rub the metal with the mixture until it shines up as desired.