Taking care of your botanical jewellery

There are many ways to firstly reduce tarnishing and to clean the tarnished pieces. The dark ‘layer’ on silver is the result of oxidation - mainly with the copper content of the Sterling Silver. But it can also be caused by contact with the skin, perfumes, moisturizer etc.

Reduce tarnishing

Store your jewellery in a sealed container or plastic bag. To help remove any moisture or oxygen include a little silica sachet you found in a packaged item. A piece of chalk or activated charcoal do the same.

Cleaning options

If you’d like to avoid commercial cleaners there are easy home made solutions available. All these recipes work best with warm liquid - a longer exposure will have the same effect. But be careful not to inhale any fumes.

• mix about 1/4 teaspoon of cooking salt with 1 cup household vinegar. Leave the silver in the solution until clean (up to 1h)

• dissolve about 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (baking ingredient) in 1 cup of water. Leave the silver in the solution until clean (up to 1h). Be careful not to stain your stainless steel sink!

• if you have aluminium foil available you can line a small dish with it and add a little salt as electrolytes to water. Leave the silver in the solution until clean (up to 1h)

To neutralize the acidic solutions dip your silver in a solution of 1/4 teaspoon of bicarb of soda in 1 cup of water for about 1 minute. Then rinse thoroughly.

The small amount of chemicals produced in the process are safe to dispose of in the sink.

Solid silver

To clean a ring for example or any other solid silver surface you can use a paste made from bicarb soda and a little water. The tiny grains work as a soft abrasive. Toothpaste works the same way. Rinse well.

Gold Plated silver

Even though the pieces are plated in 22ct gold, due to the silver underneath the piece tarnishes. Please use commercial cleaning solution.