Cleaning Your Silver the Eco-Friendly Way!
Joanne Tinley, Jewellery Designer, Tutor and Writer
Watch this class and thousands more
Watch this class and thousands more
Lessons in This Class
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1. Introduction - cleaning silver your silver the eco-friendly way!
3:10 -
2. Cleaning the silver
6:39 -
3. Conclusion
1:04
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About This Class
Most methods of cleaning silver either use harsh chemicals or a lot of elbow grease - or both! In this video class I'll show you how easy it is to clean silver using just baking soda (or bicarbonate of soda in the UK), aluminium foil and hot water.
This method can be used to clean sterling silver jewellery and household items, but do make sure not to use it on silver jewelry that contains beads, whether glass, pearls or gemstones, or includes enamelled areas as the hot water could cause them to crack. Also, silver that has been given a dark patina (surface treatment) as part of the design shouldn't be cleaned in this way unless you want to remove the colouration!
Baking soda is environmentally friendly, cheap, and has a wide variety of uses. It can be used in place of harsher chemical cleaners, can help to reduce nasty odours and even give your feet the spa treatment! A quick search on the internet will give you more ideas.
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Meet Your Teacher
I have been making jewellery for as long as I can remember, and have been passing these wonderful (and addctive!) skills on through my classes for nearly 20 years. I am self-taught and like many people I started with wire and beads. Learning how to solder, however, opened up a whole new world of jewellery making! There is something so magical about watching solder flow through a seam, joining two pieces of metal together smoothly.
My studio is in Southampton, on the South Coast of the UK. I design and make jewellery for galleries across the UK, teach regular and popular jewellery design workshops, and also offer private tuition. My jewellery design projects have been published in both UK and US magazines and books.
Visit my Etsy shop, Jewellers Bench Shop, for jewellery ma... See full profile
Hands-on Class Project
Get that silver shiny! Find your dirtest piece of silver - jewelry, ornaments or spoons! - and see how easy it is to get it looking as good as new.
Sterling silver reacts with the moisture and oxygen in the air to create a layer of tarnish or oxidation on its surface. When baking soda is activated by boiling water in the presence of aluminum, the tarnish is removed from the silver and binds with the aluminum instead, leaving the sterling silver beautifully shiny again!
All you will need is a generous helping of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda), a suitable plastic bowl lined with aluminuim foil (big enough so that each piece of silver is in contact with the foil), hot water, clean water to rinse the newly clean silver in and of course, your dirty silver! A pair of tongs to take the silver out are useful, but you can carefully drain off the water instead. The water can be safely drained down the sink and some areas will recycle aluminium foil. You may also need a polishing cloth to remove the last of very stubborn areas of tarnish.
Please remember not to use this cleaning method on silver containing glass beads, gemstones, pearls or enamelled areas as they won't like the hot water. Also, silver that has been given a dark patina (surface treatment) as part of the design shouldn't be cleaned in this way unless you want to remove the colouration!
Once your silver is lovely and clean and shiny, here are some tips to keep it looking that way for as long as possible:
- 'Last thing on, first thing off' - put your jewellery on last, after deoderants and perfumes etc. Perfumes can quickly cause a residue to build up. Likewise at the end of the day take your jewelry off before using creams etc.
- Wear your silver jewellery! Natural body oils can help to slow down tarnishing.
- Store your silver jewellery inside plastic zip-lock bags to reduce the oxygen and moisture it comes in contact with.
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