Collette’s Top Tips for Cleaning Jewellery
Once you have chosen and invested in a piece of jewellery to treasure, the last thing you want is discolouration, tarnish or dirt to gather. Especially with those favourite pieces you like to wear on a regular basis which are exposed to the oils, makeup and perfume on your skin, it’s important that your jewellery is cleaned and protected to stay flawless!
Collette understands this better than anyone and has created an easy, low tech process of cleaning your precious jewellery, using items you’ll find around the house.
You will need:
- Glass or plastic bowl
- Aluminium foil
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Salt
- Inexpensive washing detergent (like Persil)
- Plastic spoon
- Soft old toothbrush
- Kettle
Here’s a short video with Collette, explaining the process with a beautiful necklace from the Lillium collection.
- Tear a piece of foil to line your bowl (please note that the foil cannot be reused)
- Add 1 spoon of salt
- Add 1 spoon of washing detergent
- Fill the bowl with boiled water
- Ensure that all the jewellery is touching the foil
- Once it stops fizzing, empty out the contents
If there are some stubborn areas:
- Use a damp tooth brush with some bicarbonate of soda to brush the jewellery
- Once you’re happy, rinse in water to remove all residue
- Dry with a towel
Top Tip: While you’re not wearing your jewellery, wrap up your pieces in acid free tissue paper. This will help protect its shine and prevent tarnish!
Now you can wear your freshly polished jewellery and in the words of Gem Hunt ‘Get your sparkle on!’
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Neck, Wrist and Ring Sizing
Neckwear
As a default all our pendants are hung on 18 inch chains. We have found this is the most popular length. We can supply our pendants on 16'' 18'' 20'' 22'' 24''.
To decide what is the best length for you, measure an existing chain that is a comfortable length and make a note to help when choosing.
Alternatively, use a piece of string or ribbon to determine the perfect length for you.
Click the image below to see our guide.
Wristwear
Bracelets are very straightforward. The universally accepted length is 7 to 71/2 inches. Ours all have a short extender chain to allow for a little variation.
Bangles can be a bit trickier. We have a great tool you can download to help with this. You can place your own bangle over the template or cut it out and carefully put your hand through the hole. We find the medium is by far our most popular size.
Click the image below to see our guide.
Rings
This to can be tricky, especially if it is for a surprise gift!
We have spent some time developing two tools on one page for you to help determine your size. There are clear instructions on the PDF tool that make it super easy to use and has proven to given accurate measurements.
Click the image below to see our guide.
Collette Ikimotu
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