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GET THE BEST OUT OF YOUR JEWELLERY

Jewellery Care Guide

Your fine jewellery is precious for personal and sentimental reasons. With a little care and maintenance it will last the test of time ensuring you can hand it down with love through the generations. It’s also important to note, the value of your fine jewellery can increase or decrease depending on how you care for it.

Discover our Offe recommendations on how you can care for your jewellery to retain its value and ensure it stays as beautiful as when you first received it.

Know the Quality of your Jewellery

The minerals used to create your fine jewellery - gemstones, silver, gold, platinum – all react in various ways to wear and tear. The best way to determine how resistant your fine jewellery is to understand how your jewellery is classified for hardness and scratch resistance.

Developed in the 19th Century, an industry used scale to determine scratch resistance is Mohs scale. You can use this scale to learn about the hardness and scratch resistance of your jewellery. The numbers on the scale are based on the ease or difficulty with which one mineral can be scratched by another.

The minerals with a higher rating are classified as the hardest. Materials below 7 can be scratched or chipped easily if not worn and stored with care.

Diamonds have the highest rating which is why they are considered the most valuable. Gold and silver have a very low hardness rating which is why they easily scratch and dent. It’s important to treat all your jewellery with special care and remember to clean and store appropriately.

TIP 1

Cleaning & Maintaining your Jewellery

The best way to keep your jewellery beautiful is to keep it clean. Here’s the Offe Tips for cleaning and maintaining your jewellery.

Visit one of our three locations, and our in-house jewellers will happily check your jewellery for wear and tear. If your pieces require repair we can support you through our service centre.

OFFE TIP: Don’t clean your jewellery in the sink in case you lose a stone or your entire piece down the drain. Use a bowl or put the plug in. Before tipping out the water, check it to see if any stones became loose and fell out.

General Jewellery Maintenance

  • Have your jeweller regularly check your jewellery for wear and tear. Ask your jeweller to clean and polish your jewellery at least once a year.
  • Ensure you use the right cleaning equipment for each piece.
  • Only rub silver with a soft polishing cloth or piece of felt so that it maintains its appearance.
  • Make sure your polishing cloth doesn’t have metal based grit in it. Use cloths that are made specifically for jewellery.
  • Use only cleaners recommended or sold by your jeweller and cleaners specifically designed for your metal and stones.

Diamond and Gemstone Care

  • Clean your diamonds with a mild liquid detergent and a soft brush or a specially designed jewellery cleaner sold by Offe Jewellers or other reputable jewellers.
  • Ask your jeweller to check your diamond and gemstone jewellery every year. Settings or claws can become worn and need particular attention. Early detection of worn pieces can prevent you from losing expensive stones.

Caring for Pearls & Opals

  • Have your pearls re-strung by your jeweller every year. The string on your pearl strand can become stretched or worn over time, especially if they have been in contact with chemicals like perfume, hairspray and cosmetics. Ask your jeweller to knot between each pearl so if the strand is broken you won’t lose any pearls.
  • Wipe your pearls between each wear with a soft cloth and wrap them in tissue paper to keep them separate to your other jewellery. Remember they rate only 2.5 on Moh’s scale.
  • Make sure any chemicals, heat or ultrasonic baths are right for your pearl or opal jewellery. These processes can damage more delicate stones like opals or pearls.

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Store Your Jewellery Properly

When storing your fine jewellery, follow our simple storage steps to extend the life and beauty of each piece. A good quality jewellery box will keep your jewellery safe and organised, or keep your piece in the Offe Jewellers pouch or box it originally came in.

Offe Tip:Plastic zip-lock bags are a cheap and easy way to keep earring sets together and for individual storage of necklaces so your pieces stay separate and don’t tangle.

Discover the range of jewellery boxes and travel rolls at Offe Jewellers

Storage Tips:

  • Choose a jewellery box large enough to hold all your pieces.
  • Make sure each piece doesn’t touch or rub on any other piece.
  • Make sure the box is lined with a soft fabric.
  • If you keep many valuable pieces, consider a jewellery safe.
  • Store your jewellery in an acid free environment. Many plastics, glues and wood contain acid which can tarnish and sometimes erode certain metals.

Travel Storage Tips:

  • Store your jewellery in a fabric travel roll to keep your jewellery separate and free from tangles and scratches.
  • For safety reasons, carry your jewellery travel roll in your hand luggage, not your checked luggage.

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Organise and Declutter your Jewellery Box

We all know how important it is to clean our homes and office spaces. Have you ever thought, even your jewellery box needs a spring clean sometimes. Here’s our Offe Tips to help you get organised.

Remember, at Offe Jewellers, we’re here to offer you advice and always happy to assist you with cleaning and inspecting your fine jewellery.

  • Get started by purchasing a jewellery box or developing a system that keeps your jewellery easy to access, safe and organised. If you have a lot of jewellery you could buy a jewellery armoire which is a larger than usual storage boxes. Other storage systems include jewellery storage mirrors, drawer organisers and necklace trees.
  • Go through all of your old jewellery making a list as you go. It might also be worth taking a picture of each piece which can be vital information in the event of loss due to fire, flood or theft. Now is also the time to check that your jewellery is adequately protected by your house and contents insurance.
  • Check your jewellery for wear and tear. Like any other consumable product, jewellery requires maintenance. Things to look closely at are clasps and fasteners on bracelets and necklaces, backs and posts on earrings, and kinks or broken and worn links on chains. Set aside any jewellery in need of repair. You can bring it into Offe Jewellers where our experts can help you with repair and restoration advice.
  • If you’ve uncovered jewellery you no longer wear or pieces with sentimental value but you don’t use them, bring them to Offe Jewellers to see if the gemstones, diamonds or settings can be used to create a new and exciting piece.
  • Look through your collection and see if you are missing pieces that might complete your collection like a new bracelet, necklace or pair of earrings.

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Keep It Out of the Gym and Spa

As a general rule, if you’re going to swim, sweat, or steam, don’t bring your jewellery with you. It’s common for people to keep a pair of earrings on in the pool or wear a ring in the shower. But moisture, as well as the pool chlorine, (and even the pH of your sweat) can discolour your jewellery. Additionally, it provides plenty of opportunities for your favorite items to get lost or broken.

OFFE TIP:Saltwater can dull and erode your gems. Remember to remove your jewellery before taking a dip in the ocean.

  • Keep a small cloth jewellery bag to store
  • Keep a ring bowl near the bathroom sink to place when washing hands or showering
  • Leave your precious pieces at home

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Avoid Contact with Lotion or Perfume

Precious metals, coloured gems, and pearls are very sensitive to chemicals. That can include even the products you put on your skin. If you’re applying perfume, make sure to do so before putting on your jewellery rather than spritzing afterwards. The same goes for any sort of makeup setting spray, lotion, or skin refreshing spray.

  • Pearls and porous gems are sensitive to chemicals and can cause permanent damage
  • Ensure your skin is completely clean before putting jewellery on
  • Immediately rinse and wipe with gentle cloth if it was exposed to chemicals

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Get Professionally Cleaned

Bring your precious pieces in for an annual professional clean, check and polish, to keep your jewellery lasting a lifetime.

  • Keep your jewellery looking brand new by investing in an annual professional clean
  • Have your settings checked for any lose stones
  • Prolong the life of your most cherished piece by having an annual check by your jeweller

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Protect Your Jewellery with Insurance

Lastly, your precious jewellery is sentimental and a large investment, we recommend looking into insurance for the unlikely and unfortunate event that they may go missing.

  • Peace of mind
  • Check what your covered for
  • Talk to our staff to help you find the best coverage

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