Hi all, re clients who don’t clean our beautiful creations, I try
to overcome this by offering a once a year free clean for the
period of my lifetime! I find that this sometimes works.!!!..
however from a PR point of view I feel I am way ahead, the
client knows that I still care about the piece and how it looks
and that I want her/him to enjoy wearing it. I have been known
to take a pin from the lapel of a high ranking minister of
government and have it cleaned and returned the next day!!
felicity in very hot west oz
PS The magnetic tumbler sounds wonderful. I wonder if it is too late to put
a request in to Father Christmas!!
I am ashamed to admit I have two rings that often suffer from
inadequate cleaning. I do wear them all the time: one’s my
engagement ring (diamond) and the other was my grandmother’s
engagement ring (which I had reset with sapphire after my mother
had the diamond reset.) Both settings have deep recesses under
the stones (particularly my grandmother’s ring) and I know I get
a lot of crap caught on the bottom of the stones. I have tried
using jewelry cleaner and a toothbrush, but I still can’t get off
the stuff stuck to the bottom of the stones. So, anyone have any
ideas how I can get them properly clean? I will be eternally
grateful, as then I won’t have to hide my hands when I attend
trade shows!
Ultrasonic? Steam Cleaner? They are the two best ways.
Toothbrush and soap and water will never work thoroughly. But I
thought all jewelers used these tools.
Hello Suzanne I tell my clients to have their jewelry checked at
lest twice a year. And in the mean time, use a small jar like a
baby food jar, four table spoons of non suds ammonia, two table
spoons ( dawn dish soap),add water just over half, mix, remove
lid, nuke to warm, place jewelry in jar let set for ten to
fifteen min. remove scrub vigorously and rinse.
We always clean client AND non-client jewelry…anyone can walk
in the front door (usually with a bagful) and ask to have it
done. Frequently, if there’s not tooo much pressing, we’ll even
give it a re-finish; tightening prongs and checking on the
general security of parts is, of course, always part of the
process. We encourage people with big smiles to come in at least
every couple of months to insure that their lovelies sparkle and
don’t lose any stones. Which all means that what we end up with
is not regular cleaning (except for a few customers who seem to
live in the store), but once-a-year people who bring in all their
caked jewelry at once. ? I dunno, but just as Psuedo-Dionysius
established the heirarchy of angels, we have established a
vocabulary describing the heirarchy of crud: gradoo (being the
lowest - merely crusty), spooge (being enough to curl the lip -
slighly gooey and replete with nasty unknowns), and skredankma
(being best left undescribed - the kind of stuff that gets picked
up with tongs and depisited directly into the sonic and left for
a couple of hours while you shudder from the contact). And now
that I’ve gotten THAT off my wheezing chest, I’ve gotta crawl
back into my dungeon for the last 4 daze (ha, pun) of the rush
and probably spend Christmas day whimpering. Santa’s little
helper is wiped and looking forward to a career change after 17
years, maybe I’ll do something safe and non-toxic, I understand
the local convenience store is hiring for all 4 shifts…
Kathy, ranting uncontrollably and probably foaming at the mouth
in PA
Suzanne—this is a trick I learned from a Camp Mother when I
was a counselor at a children’s camp 100 years or so ago: To
clean combs, brushes, windows, tiles, glassware, crystal, AND
JEWELRY, (not pearls), soak it in a solution of ammonia or sudsy
ammonia and water for about ten minutes or so, and then, in the
case of jewelry,toothbrush the rest of the gunk out of the
crevices. Repeat as often as necessary to accomplish the
cleaning process and then wash in a mild detergent and rinse in
hot water. (in the case of cruddy hairbrushes for those who are
interested, just comb them out with the comb you were also
soaking.) Works every time. …Donna
For the novices out there…please don’t do the hairbrushes with
the jewelry…
Sounds to me like you’re working too hard. I figure that if I’m
not enjoying myself, I should stop and do something else for a
while. No one will die if their jewelery is’nt ready just when
they want it (and they always want it yesterday.) Been there
too;
I use Dawn diluted 1/2 & 1/2 with water. I then take a soft
medium size red sable brush and “wash” the stone with the
liquid, rinse, repeat, and rinse again. If it still needs work
I’ll soak it in the mix over night. It generally comes out
clean. My wife has a ring that I made for her with a rather
large round white zircon prong set on a bypass ring with
graduated marquis burmese rubies set into the band. This ring
is an absolute dirt magnet! It is probably my design that is
conducive to collecting every sort of schmutz and dreck known to
man. I am somewhat reluctant to put the ring in the ultrasonic
because of the fragility of the zircon and this method works
well for me. As an aside, many people ask my wife if the stone
is real or is a cz, and she loves to say with a huge grin “Oh
no. This is a real natural mined stone!”
Been there