How to Clean Jewelry and Make Minor Repairs

Maintaining the beauty and shine of any piece of jewelry by cleaning and polishing it often. You can also do some minor repairs on your costume jewelry at home. However, your expensive jewelry should be left to a professional.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. With most stones and their settings, (costume or real) they can be cleaned with a commercial liquid jewelry cleaner. Simple follow the package directions.
   
   You can also use warm water and a mild detergent.

2. Gently scrub the settings with a soft brush. A soft bristled toothbrush is fine. However, do not us toothpaste on your fine jewelry.

3. After washing, dry with a soft cloth and polish with a piece of chamois.

4. Diamonds can be cleaned in a solution of 1 tablespoon of ammonia to 2 cups of water.

5. Use silver polish to remove the tarnish from silver jewelry.

6. Clean your pearls by wearing them next to your skin, your skin oils will improve the pearls surface.

7. For minor jewelry repairs, when you have a loose stone you can use a pair of jewelry pliers to retighten loose stones. for a broken strand of beads you can restring them with dental floss and a needle.

Tips & Warnings

• Never use toothpaste or other abrasive.