Caring for your Vivienne Westwood Jewellery
15 May 2014
All our Vivienne Westwood jewellery is genuine and beautifully hand-made. Here are our guidelines for caring for your jewellery. This can also be applied to any jewellery that you own.
Sterling Silver Pieces
Sterling silver jewellery in the Vivienne Westwood range is mainly within the ring collection. Silver is a precious metal and needs looking after. This can be achieved with regular cleaning, with a cloth in circular motions (please remember to wash hands afterwards). We sell our own Silver Tree cleaning cloths for £6; please email shop@silvertreejewellery.co.uk to enquire. Cleaning can also be achieved with some lukewarm water, a small amount of washing up liquid and a soft toothbrush - be careful going over any stones. Do not use any silver dip cleaning agent as this can damage stones and take off any purposeful oxidisation.
Imitation Jewellery
The Vivienne Westwood collection uses imitation metals and stones to keep the jewellery at an affordable price. The best practice for caring for this jewellery is to store the items in clear plastic bags to keep the pieces air tight. Never use polyvinyl plastic bags, such as garbage bags as they contain sulphur compounds, which will make sterling silver tarnish faster. To clean this jewellery, I would again use lukewarm water and a soft tooth brush with a small amount of washing up liquid, carefully brushing over any stones.
Tarnishing
All sterling silver will tarnish over time. But it will happen much faster when it comes into contact with agents such as perfume, salty air, sulphur, skin creams, hairspray, chlorine and acidic skin ph. The amount of tarnishing (oxidisation) that occurs is dependent on the skin and care habits of the wearer. Tarnishing is therefore not a manufacturing fault.
Caring for your Jewellery
Sterling silver and any metals do tarnish over time and regular cleaning along with a safe storage place will keep the longevity of your well loved jewellery item. Do not store your jewellery in the bathroom. This will make it tarnish faster due to humidity and to sulphites; which can be found in some toilet freshener sets. Always make sure that perfume is put onto the skin first and allowed to dry before adorning yourself with jewellery. I would also take off any jewellery you have when washing or cleaning due to the harsh chemicals in detergents and some soaps.
All our Vivienne Westwood jewellery is provided for you in a branded gift box. We also offer Free delivery and Free P&P.
See our stunning collection here: Vivienne Westwood
