How to cleaning your jewelry?

Methods and risks

Maintaining a clean diamond can sometimes be difficult, as jewelry settings can obstruct cleaning efforts, and oils, grease, and other hydrophobic materials adhere well to a diamond's surface. Some jewelers provide their customers with sudsy ammonia cleaning kits. Many jewelers use steam cleaners. Some other jewelers sell small ultrasonic cleaners. Home-based cleaning methods include immersing the diamond in ammonia-based or ethyl alcohol-based solutions, or even a solution of mild grease dissolving detergent and warm water. Silver jewelry can be cleaned using aluminum foil, baking soda, and hot water. However, this practice is not recommended by most jewelers.
Certain types of cleaning can damage some jewelry. For example, some class rings are coated with a dark pigment to reduce their shininess. Some gemstones, such as white topaz, have an overlay to produce certain colors. Ultrasonic cleaning can remove this coating, if it is not a quality piece. Ultrasonic cleaning is also contraindicated for opals, pearls and amber, and any other gemstone that is porous. Gemstones that are glued in (a common practice with semiprecious stones in non-precious methods, and in class rings) should not be placed into an ultrasonic cleaner. An ultrasonic cleaner can cause stones that are loose in their settings to come out. Jewelry should always be examined for overlays and loose stones prior to cleaning with an ultrasonic cleaner or a steam cleaner.

Jewelry Care

There are a number of things you can do to prevent build up of dirt and prevent jeweler becoming tarnished. Namely: Store jeweler carefully in its original packaging or a jeweler’s box. Clean jeweler using warm water, mild soap and a soft bristle toothbrush. Use a non abrasive silver cloth or soft lint free cloth to polish jeweler and remove tarnishing. Don't expose jeweler to harsh chemicals or perfumes as this could cause damage and discoloration. Don't wear jewelers when doing anything heavy duty and avoid unnecessary knocks and scratches.

Beauty of gems

Although it is not one of the 4 C's, cleanliness affects a diamond's beauty as much as any of the 4 C's (cut, carat, color, clarity).
A clean diamond is more brilliant and fiery than the same diamond when it is "dirty". Dirt or grease on the top of a diamond reduces its luster. Water, dirt, or grease on the bottom of a diamond interferes with the diamond's brilliance and fire. Even a thin film absorbs some light that could have been reflected to the person looking at the diamond.
Colored dye or smudges can affect the perceived color of a gem. Historically, some jewelers' diamonds were migrated due to smudges on the girdle, or dye on the culet. Current practice is to thoroughly clean a gem before grading its color as well as clarity.
Cleanliness does not affect the jeweler’s market value, as jeweler’s routinely clean jeweler before offering it for sale. However, cleanliness might reflect the jeweler’s sentimental value.

By: wikipedia

How to choose jewelry box

A useful jewelry box must fit the available space while also offering spaces suited to an array of jewelry. Imitation-velvet linings provide texture to stabilize fingertips, making jewelry retrieval easy. Other useful features include divided drawers or trays for holding small items such as earrings, some fully flat drawers for holding inflexible bracelets or anklets, a drawer with a soft ridged filling suitable for rings, spaces to hang necklaces without tangling, and racks to serve as an earring tree for dangling earrings.

Some jewelry owners like to have a built-in mirror also The importance of divided drawers cannot be over stated; although fully flat drawers, or ones divided into halves of quarters, can be useful, small items will undoubtedly become jumbled and difficult to locate. Divisions providing one-, two-, or three-inch compartments allow earrings, pins, and brooches to be sorted and stored by size. While lift-off or sliding lids can be fun, they tend to obscure vision and frustrate one conducting a last-minute hunt for a specific piece; clear plastic lids provide a useful compromise.

Regardless of how much jewelry a person has to store at the time the box is acquired, the quantity will likely increase, recommending the selection of a sizable box over cute little boxes. Finally, a useful jewelry box is one that the user finds aesthetically appealing-consider that it may be in service for decades.

Model of jewelry Box :

-Womens jewelry Box, Mans Jewelry box, Leathers Jewelry box, Musical jewelry box, Pen chest boxes, Locking jewelry box, Personalized jewelry box.

pictures credit fom www.sz-wholesale.com/

How about Your Diamond ?Original or Immitation?

Anyone can be fooled by imitations, even diamond experts. However, by doing the following tests, you can reduce your chances of being fooled.

See-through Test Look at the stone face up. Can you see through it? If you can, it's probably an imitation (In some cases a poor cut or the presence of dirt or grease makes it possible to see through a diamond). The seat through test can also be done by placing a clean, round stone face down on newsprint. If you can see the letters through the stone, it probably is an imitation. For fancy shapes such as ovals and pears, it's best to limit this test to the face-up view because often, you can see through their pavilions.

If you plan to examine stones in antique jewelry, you should be aware that the diamonds may have a see-through effect due to the different cut and the large culet. Tilt Test Tilt the stone against a dark background. Can you see an obvious, dark, fan-shaped area If you can, it's doubtful that it is a diamond. This test is a variation of the see-through test, but it's easier to do on mounted stones. It also works best on round diamonds.

Rainbow Colors Test Move the stone under a light and note how strong the flashes of rainbow colors are in comparison to a diamond under the same light. If the rainbow colors (also called dispersion or fire) are a lot more obvious than your diamond, the stone may be synthetic retile or strontium titan ate. If they're less obvious, the stone may be an imitation or a diamond with a large table and a thin crown. This test is most useful for distinguishing diamond from synthetic retile and strontium titan ate, the two imitations which, like diamond, can be cut to have no see-through effect.

CZ (cubic zirconium) also displays more rainbow colors than diamond, but sometimes it's hard for the untrained eye to see the difference. It's particularly important to compare CZ and diamond under the same light. The rainbow colors are easier to see in sunlight and under incandescent light (from light bulbs) than under fluorescent light.