Cleaning Custom Designed Jewelry

I came across this article about the care and cleaning of your fine jewelry.  Custom designed jewelry, if properly designed for wear, requires very little maintenence overall, but you will want to inspect it periodically for loose stones and have it cleaned once in a while.  You can perform a quick test yourself by pressing lightly on both sides of the stones in your piece with a pair of thin tweezers.  If they wiggle at all bring it in to a jeweler to have the stone re-set.  This shouldn't be a substitute for having a trained eye periodically inspect the piece, but it's a good habit to get in, in-between inspections and cleanings.

Here are some more tips from www.barbieinablender.org:

Training Your Fine Jewelry:

The first thing you should do is to give your fine jewelry its own little space for when it is not being worn and train it to stay there. Jewelry items do not live or party well together. Much of the damage, other than wear, that is done to jewelry happens in jewelry boxes. Stones scratch each other and the metals around them.

 

Cleaning Your Fine Jewelry:

The best way to clean your fine jewelry is with a soft (used) toothbrush and a mild dish detergent. If the pieces are very dirty, you can soak them in detergent and water.

 

Any competent jeweler can polish items on occasion, but this process also removes small amounts of metal and so should be used sparingly.

 

Checking for Wear and Tear:

Over time, gold and silver will wear down. This can happen over months or years. This can be a problem for people who do certain kinds of work. The solution to this type of problem is the use of heavier metal in the prongs, the use of platinum for the setting or the use of a bezel setting to secure the stone. Prongs should be checked occasionally and if thin they should be replaced.

If you invest in quality made pieces you will have very little maintenance to worry about, aside from the occasional cleaning.  It's worth investing in better work simply for the piece of mind.

Here is an excellent video on cleaning your jewelry from Youtube.