Jewelry is formed from either precious metals being molded into beautiful works of art, or precious metals being married with precious gems and jewels to create eye catching and elegant pieces. The tips in this article will help you sort through the various pieces to determine the jewelry that is not only appealing to you, but is also appealing when worn by you.
Try keeping up with jewelry trends. Like with fashion, jewelry also follows seasonal trends and you can find a style and color combination that is right for you. You can even find specialty items that go with clothing pieces in your own personal wardrobe. The possibilities and combinations are endless.
If you don’t have any jewelry cleaner handy, try using toothpaste with baking soda to help clean tarnish off of your sterling or pure silver jewelry. Just rub the toothpaste on the tarnished area with a soft cloth and clean off. Make sure to dry the jewelry to prevent future tarnishing.
The best tool for any jewelry hunter, whether searching for personal treasure or for the profit in reclaiming gold or silver, is a jeweler’s loupe. Jeweler’s loupes are small, but powerful magnifying instruments designed specially for use in examining jewelry at very close range. Some jeweler’s loupes also have a built-in, battery-powered light which can be very handy if examining pieces in a dimly lit area. Most jeweler’s loupes are extremely economical in cost and can help you make the most of your jewelry-buying dollar, especially when buying from second-hand sources.
When you want to get diamond jewelry it is important that you know the quality of the stone you are trying to buy. Any qualified or knowledgeable jeweler will be able show you the quality of the diamond you are buying. From there, the prices are explainable; the higher the quality of the diamond the more expensive.
When making jewelry and you want to turn a bead into a linked piece, take an eye pin and thread it through the bead’s hole. Let the bead slide to the bottom of the eye pin. Directly above the bead, use your pliers to bend the eye pin approximately 45 degrees. Using wire cutters, trim this to about half an inch in length. Using small round pliers, grasp the tip of the wire and start looping it around the pliers tip. Don’t give up if your eye pin loop is not directly round – practice makes perfect!
To keep your jewelry in top condition, never wear it to sleep. When you sleep, your body produces a lot of sweat and gives off a lot of heat, both of which can cause serious damage to jewelry. Sweat can cause it to tarnish or rust, while the heat can cause soft metals to deform.
If you are looking to purchase a piece of jewelry with precious stones, there are synthetic gems that are more affordable, and have a similar grade of quality as natural gems. But, remember that imitation gems which are composed of plastic elements are indeed fake, whereas synthetic gems are cultured in actual laboratories.
Ask your jeweler if they have the current equipment that is used to distinguish real diamonds from those that were created in a lab. Most of the older equipment can detect cubic zirconia, but sometimes they mistake lab diamonds for real ones. Making sure your jeweler has the correct testing equipment can save you from being a victim of fraud.
While gold is often mixed with other metals in large amounts, platinum tends to be more pure. The most popular type is 900 Platinum, which is 90 percent platinum. Since there is so little of other metals used in the pieces platinum is considered hypoallergenic and is the preferred metal of people with allergies.
When it comes to taking care of your jewelry be sure that it is safe while in storage. This is important because depending on how it is stored, you may find that it becomes scratched or tarnished. To avoid this, prevent your jewelry items from coming in to contact with each other and also make sure that the container it is in is soft and dry.
If you get dirt inside of all of the little areas on a piece of jewelry they can be very hard to clean. The best thing to do is to heat it in a glass dish of soap and water on the stove and then brush it clean with a toothbrush. Make sure you do not let the soapy mixture come to a boil because it can cause damage.
When you clean your jewelry, be sure to dry it and polish it before returning it to storage. This is especially true for gold and silver jewelry. The metal can tarnish if left damp. The stones in your jewelry will also develop water stains if they are put away with water on them.
Try using an aluminum pan, baking soda and boiling water to clean tarnished sterling silver jewelry. First, lay the jewelry in the bottom of the aluminum pan. Next, sprinkle a layer of baking soda over the jewelry. Once the jewelry is covered with baking soda, pour boiling water into the pan. Use a spoon to push the jewelry around in the pan. When the water cools, remove your jewelry and dry it off. Finally, polish it with a cloth to remove any remaining tarnish.
There are many varieties of jewelry in the world created by the combination of precious metals, jewels, and gems. The results of the processes that form jewelry create beautiful and striking works of art that can be worn on one’s person. Now, instead of being awestruck by these creations, you can deftly sort through them to determine those that will be most complimentary to you.