Many times you ask me how to care for and clean the silver jewelry that comes out of The MeriTomasa's Treasures Factory: in this post I will tell you the most common tips and my best tricks.

Not all silver jewelry is cleaned the same

To begin with, not all silver jewelry should be cared for the same: it depends on the finish. Silver treasures can have a polished, matte, darkened finish... or a combination of these to create contrasts between different parts of the jewel. Jewelry with a polished finish is the one that usually raises the question of how to clean it, to maintain its brilliance.

Silver is a precious metal that oxidizes quite easily and at the same time quite soft (that is, it also scratches easily). There are many agents that can oxidize silver: chlorine, body fat, our favorite perfume... even the sun's rays! Of all of them, in my experience, more than heat or sweat, what most influences the oxidation of silver is the PH of each person's skin, or even the changes in the PH of each person's skin. There are people who oxidize more and there are people who shine, and that can also vary from one day to the next in the same person.

The oxide of silver is the result of the reaction of the metal in contact with air and oxygen, or with other corrosive agents. This oxide shows up in the form of darkening of silver. That is why it is easier to maintain a darkened (or oxidized) silver jewel, since you simply have to avoid cleaning it too much so as not to remove the oxide that gives it its darkened finish. If you do it by mistake, the best solution is to go to a specialized workshop to restore its original appearance.

The best tips and tricks for caring for and cleaning silver jewelry with a shiny finish

On the other hand, if your silver jewelery has a shiny (or polished, which is the same) finish, the best trick to clean your jewelery is to prevent it from rusting. My advice: store your silver jewelry in a drawer (without light) and inside a plastic bag (without air). This way you prevent light and oxygen from oxidizing them. Also, before storing them, wipe them with a chamois to remove sweat and body fat. It is not magic, but by following this simple step by step you will avoid having to take them often to a specialized jewelry store for a set-up.

My best trick is a little silver cleaning chamois. That is why I include it in all the treasures that come out of my workshop. You simply need to gently rub the shiny surface of the silver to remove skin contact marks before storing your jewelry. On the other hand, if your jewel has a matte finish or a darkened finish, or parts of it are matte or darkened, the suede should only serve to gently remove the sweat, but you should avoid rubbing those finishes because by doing so you are making them shiny.

Another important tip is not to wash the silver cleaning chamois that I enclose: the cloth is impregnated with a special chemical product for polishing your jewelery and if you wash the chamois it will lose that impregnation.

Grandma's tricks, an easy one that I recommend... and what my teacher told me

Lemon and salt, vinegar, toothpaste, bicarbonate... On the Internet you will see many grandmother's remedies to clean silver. I don't recommend them: many of them, like baking soda, are abrasive. That means they remove rust, but they are also scratching your jewelry and dulling it.

An easy trick that I recommend, if your jewel has a polished finish: boil water with a degreaser (like Fairy, Mistol...) and put your jewelery in for a little while. Then you pass them a soft toothbrush, but tapping, not rubbing. In this way you remove the body fat from the jewel. And then you rub it with jeans, dry clothes, and rub hard. In this way you do not scratch but remove the rust and shine. This if your jewel has a polished finish. If your jewel has a matte finish, you can also wipe it with a dishwashing sponge, on the scratching part, but always carefully.

I am a jeweler and I use machines and chemicals typical of my trade, so my final advice is the one that my jewelery teacher in Córdoba gave me: jewels are like cars, they come out great from the dealership but over time they pass little things, so every now and then they need to stop by the shop for a tune-up. It is the best solution for silver jewelry with a darkened finish or a matte finish if they are scratched or have partially lost its finish, and it is also the best solution for your silver jewelry with a glossy finish if you have not had the constancy of passing the chamois silver cleaner from time to time :)

What if I want to clean a silver jewel with a gold bath?

The first thing you have to keep in mind is that a bath is a layer that we add to the piece, and therefore you must be careful not to remove that layer when cleaning your jewel. For durability, it is always better that your treasure be solid: at first a solid gold jewel and a silver jewel with a gold plating cannot be differentiated with the naked eye. Over time, yes: the bathroom needs more maintenance, especially if there is a lot of friction. For example, earrings that have almost no friction can go a century without going through a workshop. But a ring, a necklace or a bracelet are more likely to lose color, because they have more friction.

The bath is an outer layer and the more friction it has, the faster it will disappear. Especially if it's rose gold plating: technically, rose gold plating cannot be very thick (as yellow gold does). We call the rose gold bath flash, not bath, precisely for that reason, because rose gold only allows us to give a flash so that it looks good and beautiful (more microns would make it look satin, badly bathed).

To make a jewel bathroom have a better life, I would tell you not to scrub the treasure with a metal cleaning cloth (scratch!). And much less with bicarbonate (I never recommend it). The most you can do is put it in boiling water with a little degreaser (Mistol or Fairy type), take it out, place it still hot in your hand and tap it with a soft toothbrush to remove body fat. Finally, you can dry it with a kitchen paper without rubbing hard.

For all this is why at The MeriTomasa's Treasures Factory I always make good quality baths, 18K gold baths, and I do not make gilding of strange metals, because my goal is that my treasures have a higher quality and greater durability, especially when there is friction, as in the case of a necklace.