Cleaning Woven Jewelry
Hand woven jewelry presents
its own set of cleaning problems. Obviously you can't just
polish it with a rag unless it is an oxidized piece that is intended
to be shiny only on top and dark in the indentations. Those
pieces have been polished and waxed to retain their look, but if it
is a silver piece with shiny weaving it will eventually need to be
cleaned. This is an easy way to clean those pieces.
Recipe
1/4 cup Arm and Hammer
Super Washing Soda
2 cups hot (to the hand
- not boiling) tap water
Crumpled aluminum foil
- Pour dissolved mixture of water
softener in a glass dish.
- Place crumpled aluminum foil in the
bottom of dish
- Place the jewelry with tarnish on the
foil. The liquid must cover the jewelry.
- The tarnish will migrate from the
piece of jewelry to the foil. You may have to repeat
the process more than once to get the piece completely clean
depending on your water, the temperature or the amount of
tarnish on the piece.
- Rinse well and dry with a soft cloth
You can use this technique
on your silver jewelry, flatware or on silver plate. It
removes tarnish without damage to metal or stones.
Even though we have had no
problem with damage from this method of cleaning, you must
test your pieces yourself to make sure you don't damage your
jewelry. We have used this on natural stones and pearls with
no damage, but some stones may have treatments such as waxes or oils
that may be removed
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