Part of responsible jewelry ownership is taking care of what you got. And as everyone knows, jewelry can become quite dirty after repeated wearing. Therefore you need jewelry cleaners to help you with this maintenance job.
Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaners
The ultrasonic jewelry cleaner is a machine that can be plugged into a regular outlet. This machine typically consists of a motor and a little tank in which your jewelry is stowed for the cleaning process. This jewelry cleaning machine is typically filled with warm water and a cleaning solution that comes with the kit. However, you can use a homemade detergent with a bit of ammonia in it for this sonic jewelry cleaner.
Whatever you do, do not use any cleaner with bleach or acid. This can greatly harm any jewelry piece that you have. From there, you turn on the jewelry cleaner machine which will then emit these tiny vibrating waves that causes the cleaning solution to bubble. It is these bubbles that penetrate through the dirt to clean the jewelry. Once the process is complete, remove your jewelry from the machine, rinse with cool water and then dry and buff with a jewelry cloth.
Be forewarned! These cleaners are great for silver and gold pieces. They are also great for silver or gold settings with diamonds or other hard stones. However, softer stones such as opals, turquoise, emeralds and more can be damaged in a ultrasonic jewelry cleaner.
Homemade Jewelry Cleaner
You can clean jewelry with things that you can find in your home. If you want to know how to clean silver jewelry, you will need some aluminum foil, hot water, salt (table or rock is fine) and a jar with a lid. To make this silver jewelry cleaner, you put in several strips of aluminum foil into the jar along with a tablespoon or two of the salt. Fill the jar halfway with hot water, place your silver jewelry inside and then cap the lid. Swish gently for a few minutes.
This homemade way on how to clean jewelry may have to be repeated a time or two for silver, depending on the tarnish build-up. You see, the tarnish will work its way off the piece of jewelry and stick to the aluminum foil. You just then rinse with cool water and then buff with a jewelry cloth.
Cleaning gold jewelry is a bit easier. All you need is a mild soap, some water and a very soft toothbrush. You would lightly brush the piece of jewelry until you notice that the gold has its proper sheen back. Then you would rinse, dry and gently buff with a jewelry cloth. This is one easy way on how to clean gold jewelry. Cleaning diamond jewelry can be completed in a similar fashion as well.
As you can see, there is various jewelry cleaners around that can get the job done. From commercial products to those in your kitchen, choose the jewelry cleaner that suits you the best. And when in doubt, you could always take you jewelry into a jeweler and have the professionals use their own jewelry cleaners to get the job done.
