CARE FOR YOUR JEWELLERY
Your jewellery will need to be looked after with care as gemstones are natural materials that can be easily damaged.
We suggest you don't wear jewellery, such as an engagement ring, in situations where it is likely to be damaged (eg. doing the washing up) and please remember that any impact at the wrong angle can weaken the structure of your engagement ring and possibly result in the gemstone becoming loose or even falling out.
Any advice given to you about the suitability of materials, design or choice of gemstone for your lifestyle is given to you in good faith and we cannot be held responsible for future damage to your jewellery.
We recommend you bring your jewellery back to us or another good jeweller at least every 2 years to be checked over. We can then recommend any maintenance work that may need doing.
Gemstones are natural materials and can scratch or be chipped depending upon the stone’s hardness. Pearls and some gemstones can fade over time. Remember that in the proper craft of goldsmithing, the stones are secured in place by lips or claws of metal pushed up over the stone (rather than adhesive) and a chipped stone is therefore less well secured and could come loose and fall out of its setting.
It is perfectly normal for any setting to become slightly loose over time due to daily wear and tear and it is a simple matter for us or another good jeweller to tighten it up.
Precious jewellery should not be exposed to concentrated UV light as this could alter the colour and structure of your gemstones. We advise removing jewellery containing gemstones before UV exposure, i.e. nail lamps or sunbeds.
How to clean your jewellery
We recommend cleaning in the following way:
- Diamonds, sapphires, rubies, amethyst, aquamarines, garnets should be cleaned regularly and carefully, especially behind the stone, using a soft toothbrush and almost neat washing up liquid. Rinse well with water and dry with a very soft lint-free cloth. Pale stones including aquamarines in particular may appear cloudy if not cleaned regularly.
- Emeralds, opals, pearls and amber should only be cleaned by a jeweller.
- Colour treated diamonds: To achieve colour variations diamonds are held under very high pressures and temperatures or by controlled exposure to radioactivity, (similar to the conditions under which diamonds were naturally created). The diamonds may also be heat treated afterwards to stabilise the new colour. Therefore it is important that a treated diamond must never be heated but instead removed and then reset if the jewellery is worked on. Heating can result in the enhanced colour changing or being lost. It is also not advisable for colour-treated diamonds or other heat sensitive gemstones to go through a rhodium plating process or be ultrasonically cleaned.
Precious metals are soft and will scratch, tarnish and finishes will wear over time. The speed at which this will happen depends upon the shape of your hands and how much the metal is exposed to wear, especially it coming into contact with other metal or hard materials. A professional polish will shine up the metal of your engagement ring again.
- Polished silver, gold, palladium and platinum can be buffed up regularly using your relevant jewellery cleaning cloth. This should be kept in the packet when not used otherwise abrasive dust could accumulate on it.
- Matt, satin brushed or Tunstall/crushed diamond finishes will wear to a dull shine and can be re-applied by us if required.
- Rhodium plating wears off over time to reveal the natural coloured white gold underneath and this can be re-applied by us or another reputable jeweller if required.
- Sterling silver will tarnish over time if not worn (especially in a damp environment) and is likely to go black in a sulphurous area.
- Customers’ own precious metal, when melted and reformed, is likely to have porosity introduced into it which may mean that there are slight imperfections to the finished surface or in the worst case, can't be used.
Please contact us if you are at all unsure about how best to look after your jewellery - we are always happy to help.
