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Cleaning Rhinestone Jewelry
Rhinestone jewelry appears sturdy, but remember a lot of
pieces were not designed to last. Rhinestone jewelry is very sensitive to
temperature and humidity changes. That is why when you keep a piece stored in a
drawer and then take it out and change it's environment, the piece can start to loose
rhinestones, plating, or start to fall apart. Try to store your collectible jewelry
in a place where it is not subject to great temperature of humidity changes.
*Tip- Do not store your
costume jewelry in Oak or cardboard boxes they both release damaging acid fumes. You can
use them if your jewelry is first placed in a sealed plastic bag.
Rhinestones (foil backed) should never be
submerged or dipped as moisture
is the number one factor in their discoloration and decay. Second factor
is
age of a piece of jewelry and the third factor is mistreatment
of old jewelry.
Steps for cleaning old jewelry:
1. Examine the piece you want to clean with a
magnifying glass or loupe. We use a 10x lighted loupe. Most of the time your just dealing
with decades of dirt. Look for missing or loose rhinestones and any problem
areas. Any loose rhinestones in prongs should be tightened at this point if
necessary. This way you'll be aware of any problem areas before you clean.
2. First , we just use a simple soft dry lint
free cloth with nothing on it. ( a old clean T-shirt will do ) We go over the
piece gently to see how much of the surface dirt will wipe off. Then we might
look at it again under magnification.
3. We also use dry Q-tips to get into the nooks and crannies. We clean the
stones and the metal. The prongs do catch the fuzz from the Q-tip, but it's easy to
pull off. If the dirt is very bad, we may use a ever so slightly moistened Q-tip
that is almost next to dry. We use plain distilled water. We then follow with
a dry Q-tip again.
4. If that's not enough, we then go to a soft clean make-up brush or a baby
toothbrush. It is smaller and has softer bristles than a adult toothbrush. We
then gently dry brush the stones and crevices. This is followed if necessary by an ever so
slightly moistened brush as a last resort. We sometimes will use a cool gentle
air flow setting on a blow dryer ( or you can use a fan) to help dry the jewelry. This will prevent any
moisture used in cleaning from destroying the foil backing of the rhinestones in the
future. Remember many different materials and rhinestones were used in the old
jewelry. Blow drying may damage the glue or goldwash etc.. . We have
never any had trouble with this method.
*Tip -Aurora Borealis stones
have the finish on the surface only and scratch easily. We do not brush Aurora
borealis stones to avoid scratching the finish. We will place a thumb over the
Aurora Borealis stone while we are brushing the other rhinestones in a piece of costume
jewelry.
5. We sometimes use a toothpick or tweezers to get at the dirt build up or for lint
removal. Use care when doing this as to not dislodge any rhinestones.
Some costume jewelry books recommend using isopropyl alcohol
or other cleaning solutions and then clean while the piece is upside down. Don't do it. We permanently ruined a nice piece of costume jewelry doing what the
experts said. The rhinestones permanently fogged and discolored instantly on
contact. The cleaning chemicals can also discolor plastic or gold finishes.
Remember less is more. Try to clean the piece without any moisture. Also,
remember the old build up of patina is desired in some older piece. Clean the
rhinestones, but leave the rest of the piece intact. A good example would be
silver jewelry. The patina adds so much character to the piece and if you clean it-
may look like an antique reproduction.
In closing, cleaning the surface dirt off an old piece of jewelry reveals the original
beauty. Cleaning may also prevent any future damage from environmental moisture
being drawn into the dirt. We can tell you its a wonderful feeling to restore an old
treasure. It's a especially a treat when you clean a piece of jewelry that seems to
be a piece of junk and upon cleaning it turns to treasure.
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