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CARE TIPS FOR YOUR VINTAGE COSTUME
ANTIQUE JEWELRY
We love our precious vintage antique jewelry
and we want to preserve its beauty the best we can so that we can pass
down to the next generation to enjoy. I would like to devote this page
to talk about how to take good care of your vintage costume antique jewelry.
Here are a few things we should do and remember:
- Put your vintage costume jewel in a soft zipped up pouch so that the dust won't easily get to it. The
silk gift pouch is a good example because it has a zipper. It is soft and the inside is lined.
- Dust is abrasive to your jewels and weather elements cause deterioration. Store your vintage jewelry in a dry, cool and dust-free environment. Ideally in a fire proof safe.
- Despite your efforts, dust will sooner or later find its way to your beloved jewels. Therefore, you'll need to do some slight cleaning from time to time. Here are some cleaning tips:
- Use Windex or similar products as a cleaning agent. Mild soapy water is also okay. However, please remember do not spray the Windex directly to your jewel or submerge the piece into soapy water or a running faucet. Rhinestone jewelry with foil backing should never be submerged into water.
- Spray a little of the Windex onto a soft clean cloth. Make sure that it is not too wet, just barely enough to get the dust off the piece. For the hard to get to places, use a soft tooth brush or Q-tip with tiny little bit of Windex. Squeeze the excess wetness off the Q-tip or soft toothbrush so that it is barely damp.
- Make sure that you are gentle when cleaning your jewelry. If you use a toothbrush, make sure that it is soft and not scratchy. Be particularly careful with Aurora Borealis stones as they can be scratched easily.
- After you clean your jewels, leave them out for at least an hour. Make sure that they are completely dry before you put them away. This is very important because moisture causes deterioration to your jewels.
- I would also highly recommend cleaning your jewels with Sunshine Polishing Cloth. It is inexpensive, only a few dollars a piece and a cloth can clean quite a bit of jewelry. If the cloth is getting dirty, please do not re-use it, it is time to get a new one. Otherwise, you'll just be applying dirt to the jewels. You can purchase Sunshine Polishing Cloth at some jewelry stores or through internet mail orders. I recommend the Cloth because it is safe, inexpensive and easy to use. It also makes your beautiful jewels look almost like brand new! No, I have no relation to the company.
- Because the jewelry is vintage, during the course of time, a stone or two might fall off. It is a small repair job and you can easily glue it back yourself without hiring a professional. However, you should know how to do it correctly and to use the right kind of glue so that the stone will stay glued and won't turn yellow.
- The type of glue I would recommend is H-G Hypo Cement tube. It has a needle-nose applicator for precision work. Work on a flat surface free of clutter and where there is sufficient lighting. First of all, make sure that the cup which holds the stone is clean. If there is old glue in there, carefully scoop the glue residue with a blade or an appropriate tool. If you are replacing a stone, then make sure the replaced stone is the right size by putting the stone into the cup to see if it fits snuggly. It is better to use a pair of tweezers to handle the stone especially if the stone is small. Put a tiny little bit of H-G Hypo Cement glue into the cup, remember not too much, otherwise the glue will fill up to the rim. Any excess glue should be removed before the stone is put in. Let the glue set briefly before you put the stone in. If you put the stone in right away, it will distort the color. I don't recommend this glue for metal-to-metal bonds. You can obtain H-G Hypo Cement glue from craft shops or mail order it via the internet.
Take good care of your precious vintage jewels and preserve them for the next generation to love and enjoy. In doing so, you are preserving history. We can't bring back Miriam Haskell, Albert Weiss or any of the other talented designers, but we can preserve these jewels in honor of their memory.
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© 2010 Annie Sherman
Vintage Jewelry. All information and pictures contained in this web site are protected by international copyright laws. All rights reserved.