Jewellery Care and Ring Sizing
What is the best way to care for my new jewels?
Anne-Michelle Jewellery is designed to be cherished forever, but due to the nature of sterling silver, your pieces may tarnish over time. Although pure silver is actually naturally resistant to tarnish, fine/pure silver is far too soft to be used in it’s pure form for jewellery, which is why it is often alloyed with other metals to form sterling silver. Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, most commonly copper. The addition of copper adds strength and durability, but it is also responsible for the tarnishing black or discolouring of silver. Tarnishing happens for a number of reasons and is almost unavoidable over time. I like to think it gives the piece character and forms part of it's story, but if you want to keep your jewels as shiny and new as they were the first day you received them, then here are a few easy care instructions you can follow.
Silver will naturally tarnish over time through the copper contents interaction with sulfur in the air, but there are definitely things you can avoid that accelerate the tarnishing process. Remember to remove your jewellery when swimming or showering. Cosmetics, hair products and other harmful chemicals found in cleaning products can quickly discolour and tarnish your silver jewellery. Try to remember to remove your jewellery when cleaning with chemicals of any kind. Jewellery should be the last thing you put on when getting ready, and the first thing you take off before you clean or shower. Humidity in the air will also accelerate the tarnishing process, so it is best to store your jewellery in sealed containers away from humid areas like your bathroom. However, there are bound to be those times when we forget! And even if we do all of these things most of the time, silver will still naturally tarnish slowly over time.
Luckily there are a number of commercially available cleaning solutions to help restore your beloved jewellery to it's shiny new self again, and most will do the trick! It is important to always be gentle with your pieces and only use non-abrasive cleaning cloths that won't damage or scratch your jewellery. Anne-Michelle suggests using a pure cotton cleaning cloth or a specialised silver cleaning cloth. A soft toothbrush is also nifty for getting into those hard to reach spaces. There are some great home-recipes available with a quick online search, using bicarbonate of soda and spirit or white vinegar. It is worth investing in some silver jewellery cleaning product if you want to keep the sparkle alive!
Anne-Michelle also offers a professional cleaning service if you would prefer to have your jewellery professionally cleaned.
Please contact us to arrange a professional cleaning of your pieces.
How Do I know which ring size to order?
Knowing which ring size to order is essential to getting the perfect fit, but it can be tricky to know the right size when ordering online where you don't have the option of trying rings on. We've taken the guessing out of it and will send you a ring sizer ahead of your purchase so that you can shop with confidence from our beautiful collections. To order ring sizer, please get in touch with your shipping address via our contact page.
Once you know your ring size, you can use the international conversion chart to easily convert your ring size and find the corresponding size & sizing system used by your specific country.
In the United Kingdom we use the alphabetical system which is also shared by Ireland, Australia, South Africa and many other countries around the world.