Tuesday, March 15, 2011

DIY: Silver cleaning

I have lots of silver jewelry. It comes with the business, I guess you could say. But, I also have a lot of jewelry that once belonged to my great-grandmother (I call this my "archives"). Unfortunately over time silver blackens, I try to stay on top of cleanings, but I ran out of cleaner, and suddenly cleaning my pieces fell to the wayside. One day I decided enough was enough, I was going to find a cleaner that wasn't full of harsh chemicals (as part of my personal goals from my list) and potentially with something from my cabinets. Immediately, I figured there had to be some sort of baking soda paste I could make. I browsed the interwebs and found many homemade solutions. This was the one I went with, and I have to say, it worked great! I always get nervous with cleaning my vintage jewelry with stones, but having all natural ingredients kind of sets you at ease. Natural elements together can't possibly be bad, right?

So, here's what you'll need:
  • Boiling water
  • Glass baking dish (make sure the sides are tall enough to cover your jewelry)
  • Aluminum foil
  • Baking soda
  • Tongs (or something to remove the jewelry)
  • Dry cloth/Microfiber cleaning cloth
  • About 20-30 minutes depending on the amount of silver
(Click on pictures to enlarge)







(This should say Step 6. Sorry!)
 And there you have it. After I dried my goods, I used a microfiber cloth to clean them more and bring out the shine. If you're extra adventurous, you can even use a polishing adapter on the Dremmel and really pump up the shine. I did that on the cuff with the pinkish stone on it.

Voila!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

this is a fantastic tutorial - thanks for sharing, the photos really help! :D

Anonymous said...

Don't you love simple, natural cleaning recipes?! :D

Jordan said...

This is awesome!! I'm going to need to do this! I just took out my earrings the other day and there were many of them that were black and tarnished. The way I cleaned them was a lot more work then this! Haha, wonderful ^_^
Love your Blog!!

Amber's Notebook said...

great tips!! thank you!
Amber's Notebook

Betsy said...

awesome tips!!