Caring for Your Sterling Silver Jewelry

Sterling silver is an awesome material, but it does have a tendency to change color with age. While not quite as reactive as copper, a bit of care will help you keep your jewelry in the best possible shape over the long run. So, let’s dig in and I’ll talk about how to care for your sterling silver pieces, and we’ll go over how mine are treated and protected so that you can ensure that anything you buy from me looks great for a long time to come.

The Big Points

If you just need a quick cheat sheet, then you’re in the right place. Just take the following information into account and you should have an easy time making sure your jewelry stays bright for a long time to come.

• Sterling silver is at least 92.5% silver to be properly designated as sterling silver. The rest of the alloy is generally copper, which is why sterling oxidizes (changes color) more quickly than fine silver.

• Sterling doesn’t oxidize as quickly as copper, but a bit of polishing cloth (ie: Sunshine Cloth) work will be necessary depending on time worn, climate, and storage.

• Sterling silver treated with a coating like Renaissance Wax will stay bright for longer, but no coating is truly permanent. A small jar of Renaissance Wax will go for a long time if you have a collection of sterling silver.

• Storing your piece in an airtight plastic bag with the air squeezed out is the best practice to keep the finish going for as long as possible.

• In some cases, sterling silver may turn your skin green. This is cosmetic and can be removed with soap and water with no issues. It’s a fairly rare problem, and dependent on the pH of your sweat.

 

Keep all of that in mind and you’ll be able to enjoy your piece’s finish for much longer without doing much work.

What I Use and How I Treat My Jewelry

All wire pieces are created with sterling silver wire that I purchase from reputable sellers using a 92.5% silver to 7.5% copper mix. The scraps from this wire forms the basis of the majority of my fabricated pieces, although in some cases I may purchase sterling silver as a sheet for quicker production.

 

All scraps melted receive an additional 10% of their weight in melted fine silver in order to ensure that the silver reaches sterling standards.

 

My silver wire work is oxidized and treated with Renaissance Wax before being inventoried and placed in storage in a tight plastic bag to ensure it arrives looking like the photographs.

 

Fabricated pieces may or may not be oxidized before being treated with Renaissance Wax depending on the design before reaching inventory.

Maintenance for Your Sterling Silver Jewelry

Sterling silver isn’t nearly as high maintenance as copper, but it does require some work.

 

Even in humid and hot climates, generally you’ll get a week or more without the finish changing if you regularly apply a polishing cloth to the piece of jewelry. If stored when not worn it should go for much longer.

 

Oxidation will appear as dulling of the surface polish, followed by a change in color. This change of color may move through a few stages, but it will inevitably end up as a dull gray or black coloration on the surface of the metal.

 

I recommend treating any pieces regularly worn with Renaissance Wax once in a while, especially if there’s been significant dulling.

 

The other thing to keep in mind is that sterling silver will scratch up over time. 

 

While a polishing cloth will take care of most surface scratches, deeper nicks and dents are going to appear over time. This is doubly true with rings and bracelets, so be mindful of what you’re doing when you’re wearing them.

 

In the event of extreme wear and tear a full machine polish may be necessary to restore the shine and contacting a local jeweler is probably your best bet to restore the piece to its initial condition.

Physical Integrity Testing

 

On my end, I do my best to ensure that there aren’t any issues with regular wear of jewelry.

 

Wire wrapped jewelry is spiked onto a soft surface and then checked for deformation after the final round of work hardening. It’s then tossed a good distance on a hardwood floor and checked again before final treatment is applied and the piece is inventoried.

 

Fabricated silver pieces go through the same process, and are then checked to ensure the integrity of any stone settings have remained intact. That means no wiggle in the bezels, no lost accent stones in other settings, etc.

 

Thus, all pieces will be quite sturdy. Still, especially with wire, intentionally pulling or twisting the piece can cause the physical integrity to fail. Just be mindful of what you’re doing while wearing them and there should be no issues.

The Takeaway

 

Sterling silver is an excellent material for jewelry, hence its use for centuries. Fortunately for the consumer, it’s also really easy to care for and maintain as long as you’re armed with the right knowledge.

 

You now have that knowledge! So take care of your jewelry and it’ll last forever.