Whats the best way to store jewelry?
• Storing jewelry properly requires a little extra care. Diamonds and other gemstones are hard enough to scratch metal jewelry and to mar the surfaces of other stones they come in contact with. Store gemstones in their own individual soft cloth pouches or place them in a jewelry box that has separate compartments for each piece. Metal jewelry should also be stored separately.
Storing your sterling silver properly is crucial, and will mainly consist of recognizing the causes of tarnish and trying your best to protect your accessories from ever having any contact with them. For starters, never store your sterling silver in contact with rubber bands, cardboard, or wood (oak is especially bad for sterling silver). You also want it in a relatively airtight, dark space- especially protected from ultra-violet light. I recommend wrapping your sterling silver jewellery in acid-free tissue paper, and then storing each piece in a zip lock bag in a cupboard or drawer. For long term storage, this method should do the trick. If you wear your sterling silver too often to make that method viable, you can simply keep it in an airtight drawer on a layer of tissue (to keep it from contacting the bare wood). There are a number of products available to store with jewellery so that it tarnishes at a slower rate, such as 3M’s Anti-Tarnish Strips. If you don’t want to spend money, white chalk has frequently been suggested as a surprisingly effective and inexpensive substitute.
Plastic wrap is a slightly controversial storage medium. We here at Stones and Findings have found that wrapping up our sterling silver in plastic wrap and keeping it out of the light keeps sterling silver tarnish-free for ages. Others suggest that there is a crucial difference between plastic that zip lock bags are made of- and thin stretchy plastic cling wrap, which is allegedly inadvisable for silver storage. It’s probably okay, but if in doubt, leave cling wrap out. And whatever you do, don’t use rubber bands. These will cause a black band of tarnish to develop rapidly, even through a layer of plastic, without direct contact.
Proper storage really goes a long way in tarnish prevention, but it’s not the only measure you can take. Remember, also, that if you wear hairspray, perfume, moisturizers, or anything of the sort, is always best to apply those products before you put on your sterling silver to minimize contact. However, these products will still likely tarnish the surfaces of the sterling silver it comes in contact with. Likewise, the chemical makeup of the wearer’s skin, whether high in iron or acidity, will have an effect on the rate at which the sterling silver jewellery pieces tarnish. Regular cleaning and maintenance will be still be necessary.
source: www.stonesandfindings.com/jewelry-making-articles/articles/how-to-care-for-silver-jewellery
Storing jewelry properly requires a little extra care. Diamonds and other gemstones are hard enough to scratch metal jewelry and to mar the surfaces of other stones they come in contact with. Store gemstones in their own individual soft cloth pouches or place them in a jewelry box that has separate compartments for each piece. Metal jewelry should also be stored separately.
