Cleaning jewelry has always posed a serious problem for any jewelry owner especially expensive ones such as silver. Since they can be easily damaged and due to the high price of professional cleaning and polishing solutions, alternative cleaning methods appeared using less expensive items and keeping the cleaning quality to a maximum. High humidity will tarnish the silver, leaving black spots on your silver necklace. In this article we are going to feature the best methods to clean your jewelry and prevent it from tarnish and darkening. One of the best ways to prevent tarnish is to stop its exposure to humidity by keeping it in a box or any sealed place where humidity cannot enter. This way, the silver necklace will tarnish considerably slower than leaving it in wide open space where humidity can attack the silver. Anti-tarnish strip bags are also available at jewelry stores at quite a good price.

Removing tarnish which already appeared can be a hard task to accomplish, but with the proper method it can be easily removed from the silver necklace.

In a bowl full of hot water, take some salt and sprinkle it a teaspoons of salt into the water. Cover the bottom of the bowl using aluminum foil. Grab your sterling silver Chain and put it into the water. Let it stay in there until all the tarnish comes off. After the operation is complete, remove the silver necklace from the water and using a clean piece of cloth, clean and dry the silver necklace well.

A good way to keep your silver necklace shiny is to polish it well with a soft piece of clean cloth after using it. Also keep it away from any other metal or jewelry pieces since sterling silver Chains can be easily damaged, scratches appearing often and lowering the quality of the metal.

You can also find professional tarnish removers at your local jewelry store at quite small prices. You should though be careful if your necklace contains other semi-precious or precious stones such as opal which might change in color after using the tarnish remover.

A good replacement for professional polishing solutions is without a doubt, toothpaste. Using toothpaste, rub the silver sterling well, then using a dry piece of wet cloth remove the toothpaste from the silver necklace. Dry the sterling silver necklace and put it in a sealed box.

There are also ionic cleaners which you can find at your local jewelry store. Ionic cleaners are very powerful tarnish removers, using electricity like a magnet to attract all tarnish from the silver leaving the silver untouched. It is a reliable and economical way to safely and professionally remove any tarnish from the jewelry. The process is also very fast, only 10 seconds being needed to completely remove any tarnish from your sterling silver Chain.

As a conclusion, maintaining sterling silver jewelry can be expensive and a rather hard task to accomplish successfully, but with proper methods and items, cleaning your jewelry from any tarnish, polishing it well and at the same time preventing tarnish to appear, can become as simple as it gets.

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