Care Guide
How to keep a piece looking the way it did on the first day
Cleaning, storage, what to avoid, and the material-by-material rules that decide which of those apply to your piece.
Everyday habits
Most damage to fine jewellery is cumulative, and almost all of it is avoidable.
Do: Put jewellery on last, after perfume, hairspray, sunscreen and moisturiser have dried. Take it off first — before washing up, gardening, exercising or sleeping. Wipe pieces with a soft dry cloth at the end of the day to lift skin oils before they build up. Check claws and clasps with a fingertip once a month; a stone that moves needs a jeweller now, not later.
Avoid: Never wear fine jewellery in a chlorinated pool or hot tub — chlorine attacks the alloys in gold and will weaken a setting. Avoid household cleaners, bleach and acetone entirely. They dull metal and can destroy a treated stone. Don't sleep in earrings or rings; a night of pressure does more to a claw than a week of wear. Don't keep pieces loose in a bag or a bowl together. Diamonds scratch everything, including other diamonds.
Cleaning at home
For gold, platinum and hard stones, warm water and a soft brush do almost everything.
Do: Soak for ten minutes in warm water with a drop of unscented washing-up liquid. Brush gently with a soft baby toothbrush, paying attention to the underside of the setting where light enters the stone. Rinse in clean warm water — over a bowl, never an open drain — and dry on a lint-free cloth. Finish white gold and silver with a proper polishing cloth; it restores shine in seconds.
Avoid: No toothpaste, no baking soda, no salt. All three are abrasive and will leave a haze of fine scratches. No ultrasonic cleaner for emeralds, opals, pearls, turquoise or any glued or oil-treated stone. No steam cleaning at home. The temperature change alone can crack a stone with inclusions. Don't scrub silver plate or vermeil; the gold layer is measured in microns and will come away.
Storage
How a piece is kept between wears matters more than how it is cleaned.
Do: Store each piece separately, in its own soft pouch or a lined compartment. Lay chains flat or hang them; a coiled chain works itself into a knot. Keep silver in a closed pouch, ideally with an anti-tarnish strip — air is what tarnishes it. Keep pearls and opals somewhere with normal humidity. Both contain water and both dry out in a safe or a hot cupboard.
Avoid: Don't store jewellery in a bathroom. Steam and temperature swings are hard on stones and clasps. Don't seal pearls in plastic; they need to breathe. Don't leave pieces in direct sunlight — some stones fade, notably amethyst, kunzite and topaz. Don't stack rings loose in one box. They will mark each other within a month.
By stone
Hardness decides everything about how a stone may be treated.
Do: Diamond, sapphire and ruby (Mohs 9 – 10): safe in warm soapy water and in an ultrasonic cleaner. Emerald (Mohs 7.5 – 8): damp soft cloth only. Almost all emeralds are oil-treated and heat drives the oil out. Pearl (Mohs 2.5 – 4): wipe with a barely damp cloth after each wear; restring knotted strands every year or two. Opal and turquoise (Mohs 5 – 6.5): a dry or barely damp cloth, and never a solvent.
Avoid: Never put a treated, fracture-filled or dyed stone near an ultrasonic bath. Never expose pearls to perfume, hairspray or vinegar — even household acids etch nacre. Don't wear softer coloured stones on the hand for manual work; anything below Mohs 7 abrades against everyday grit.
By metal
Each metal ages in its own way, and most of that ageing is normal.
Do: Yellow and rose gold: warm soapy water and a soft cloth. Fine scratches polish out at any jeweller. White gold: expect the rhodium plate to wear through after two to three years of daily wear. Replating is routine. Platinum: develops a soft matte patina rather than losing metal. Polish it back whenever you would rather have the shine. Sterling silver: a polishing cloth after each wear, and a closed pouch between wears.
Avoid: Don't use a silver dip on a piece with stones; the solution creeps under settings and attacks porous stones. Don't polish plated or vermeil pieces with an abrasive cloth — a plain microfibre is all they can take. Don't let two metals of different hardness rub together all day. A platinum band will wear a groove into a gold one.
Professional care and repairs
Bring a piece in once a year for a check and a professional clean. It takes twenty minutes, it is complimentary for the life of anything we have made, and it is how a loose claw gets caught before a stone is lost.
We resize, re-tip claws, replate white gold, restring pearls, replace clasps, re-polish and repair — on our own pieces and on jewellery made elsewhere.
If a stone has come loose, stop wearing the piece and send us a photograph. Continuing to wear it is how a repair becomes a replacement.