TAKING CARE of SILVER JEWELRY
Silver may be less valuable than gold, but since you might be more comfortable wearing your designer silver jewelry every day than your gold pieces, it may become more sentimental to you–and it will definitely need you to do more to keep it always looking beautiful.
The most obvious step in silver care is polishing–but having to polish in the first place is something a silver jewelry owner should try to avoid: every polish removes a thin layer of silver, which means polishing only makes jewelry look good, but isn’t really good for it.
With that in mind, you should try to get into the habit of having to polish as little as possible. That is not to say that you should learn to like walking around with, dull, tarnished accessories, but if you understand what tarnishing is, it may be easier to slow down the process.
Tarnishing occurs when silver comes in contact with water in the air. That said, the most important thing when preventing tarnish is to keep designer silver jewelry away from moisture. You obviously take off your silver when doing the dishes, but keep in mind that there is water everywhere. After a couple of sticky weather weeks, silver left out in the open may look just as tarnished as silver you went swimming while wearing. No matter what the weather, though, there will always be ambient moisture ready to eat away at designer silver jewelry, so an important step to take is keeping the water in the air away from your silver.
Some people keep jewelry stacked like a napoleon with layers of felt between the silver. Felt is mostly natural and absorbant, and it is hard for water molecules to pass through when they are spaced out in the air. Silver jewelry usually comes in some kind of pouch, which will be made of felt or some similar material, these also work well.
For pieces that you really want to keep shiny as long as possible (or for lost pouches) resealable plastic bags will do the trick, as long as all of the air is squeezed out before closing: you can also use both felt and plastic.
Some people use newspaper to protect their jewelry. This is actually not wise, as the ink will chip away at silver plating, and newsprint paper is not actually as effectively absorbent as it may seem.
Another method of tarnish prevention, that is not usually recommended for individuals, is a tarnish shield. This is popular with museums, and should be taken to a professional to perform as it is highly toxic (and should NEVER be used on items that you intend to use for food).
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