How To Care For Your New Jewelry
Celtic Jewelry Care Guide: How to Clean & Maintain Sterling Silver & Gold
You've received your Walker Metalsmiths Celtic Jewelry and love wearing it, so now what? Proper storage, care, and cleaning can help your jewelry look its best and ensure its wearable condition. Jewelry, like many things we wear and use in everyday life, requires maintenance over time, but there are simple things you can do to care for your favorite pieces. All our jewelry is backed by our Walker's Guarantee, which covers repairs for one year from purchase.
Things to Do for Celtic Jewelry Care
- Clean your sterling silver jewelry by lightly wiping with a polishing cloth like the Sunshine polishing cloth.
- Store jewelry in a clean, dry, and closed location like a jewelry box, bag, or pouch to prevent tarnish and damage.
- Have all prong set stones checked by a qualified jeweler at least once per year. If you feel a snag, bring it in!
- Remove your jewelry before swimming. Chlorine can damage your gold, silver, and precious gemstone jewelry.
- Remove jewelry before activities like sports, working out, gardening and other rough activities where jewelry may become snagged, scratched, bent, or otherwise damaged.
- Use soaps, lotions, and perfumes before putting on your jewelry to prevent buildup.
Things Not to Do When Caring for Your Jewelry
- Do not wear jewelry when using household chemicals and cleaners. Even organic cleaners including vinegar, baking soda, and citrus can cause reactions with some precious metals and gems.
- Do not clean damaged jewelry. Bring to a qualified jeweler for evaluation and repair.
- Do not polish your jewelry with abrasive cloth or scrubbers.
- Follow all manufacturer instructions when using polishing creams or solutions. Some silver polishes may remove the dark background from your Celtic jewelry, so use with caution.
Sterling Silver Celtic Jewelry Care
Walker Metalsmiths uses .925 Deoxide Sterling Silver in all of our Sterling Silver jewelry. We cast all of our Sterling Silver jewelry on site at our Andover, NY studio, unless otherwise stated, to ensure quality and purity of materials.
- Sterling Silver will tarnish with time and exposure to humidity and other things in our environment.
- Tarnish can occur more quickly when exposed to certain chemicals like sulfur.
- Our Sterling Silver is nickel free and we do not rhodium plate any of our work unless otherwise noted.
- Store your sterling silver in a clean dry closed location like a jewelry box or jewelry bag to slow down the tarnishing process.
Gold and Precious Stones in Celtic Jewelry
Walker Metalsmiths uses 14K gold, unless otherwise noted, in all of our Gold jewelry. We cast our gold on site at our Andover, NY studio to ensure quality and purity of materials. We do also re-use customer gold in some of our pieces. If that is the case your piece will be cast by itself to ensure your material is used in only your requested jewelry.
- We offer 14K Yellow, Rose, and White Gold. 10K and 18K are available upon request.
- We do not rhodium plate our white gold unless requested or otherwise stated.
- Color of gold may vary if your gold has been re-cast.
- When cleaning gold jewelry do not use abrasive solutions. Use only solutions designed for jewelry cleaning and follow all manufacturer instructions. Many solutions require rinsing with warm water following cleaning.
- Some stones are more fragile than others, for example opals. Be sure to take care when wearing and cleaning them to prevent damage.
- Even diamonds can chip. Be mindful of your jewelry and remove it during rough activities.
Shop Handcrafted Celtic Jewelry
Every piece is cast and finished by hand in our Andover, NY studio, backed by Walker's Guarantee.
Celtic Rings → Celtic Pendants →Learn More About Our Materials & Craft
- Celtic Jewelry Materials Guide — Sterling silver, gold, platinum, and craft
- SILVER! Let Me Tell You About It — Everything you need to know about sterling silver
- The History and Romance of Rose Gold — The story behind this warm-toned metal
- How It's Made: Lost Wax Casting — See how hand-carved wax becomes precious metal
- Re-Use Your Gold — Create custom pieces from your heirloom metals
About the Author
Stephen Walker has been handcrafting Celtic jewelry in Andover, NY since 1984. Walker Metalsmiths casts all sterling silver and gold jewelry on site using the lost wax process, ensuring quality and purity of materials in every piece.
Comments on this post (1)
Hi Steve, Thankyou so much for all the information on taking care of my jewelrey I found it very helpful. I really love the pieces that I have from your shop. Thanks again and have a great summer.
Suzanne
— Suzanne Blakeslee