Tips to Care for Your Sterling Silver Jewelry

Tips to Care for Your Sterling Silver Jewelry

I have been asked many times by my customers as to how they should care for their sterling silver jewelry. So, I have provided some tips and helpful hints for answering some of these questions.

Silver has been mined and used since ancient times and has been used more and more in making jewelry since the 18th century. Silver by itself is considered to be a soft metal ,making it too soft to be used for jewelry making and other such products. It is therefore mixed with other metal substances (copper) known as alloy to create the product of sterling silver, thus making it harder and more suitable for jewelry making. In order for silver to be considered sterling silver it must contain a minimum of 92.5 % pure silver in content. Even though the copper contained in the silver helps the silver become more durable it also has a tendency to cause the sterling silver to tarnish or darken when the silver is exposed to substances used by us everyday.

To care for the silver and to prevent tarnishing ,below are a few tips that I pass on to my customers:

1. Avoid exposing sterling silver to chemicals such as perfume, hair spray and chlorine.
2. Use a cleaner designed for cleaning sterling silver. I suggest not using toothpaste because it is too abrasive and may scratch the silver. A mild soap detergent would work well.
3. Store your sterling silver in tarnish prevention bags and occasionally polish the sterling silver using a tarnish prevention cloth. Never store or wrap your sterling silver jewelry in newspaper, aluminum foil or wood surfaces which can contain acid
.4. It is known that body oils help to prevent tarnishing, so by wearing your sterling silver jewelry often this will help eliminate regular cleaning.


For more information about caring for sterling silver jewelry you may contact me at sarah@sarahdipiti.com. You may also purchase my sterling silver handmade jewelry at www.sarahdipiti.com

My Best, Sarah