care for your silver

inspirals want you to enjoy wearing your silver for life! take the time to care for it and it will look fabulous forever. here follow a few guidelines as to how to go about this...

care for your jewellery

try not to drop or tread on it!
to stop your silver jewellery oxidising when you're not wearing it keep it in the pouch supplied. we will also supply single earrings/cufflinks if you are unfortunate enough to loose one. please remember that, like beautiful clothing, certain items of jewellery are delicate and should be worn with care and saved for special occasions.

silver

you may find that some items occasionally turn black (oxidise) when they come into contact with your skin; this is due to the natural acids in one's skin reacting to the additional metals in sterling silver
silver in its pure form is too soft to be of much use for jewellery, sterling silver is the combination of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% either copper or brass. you may find that your jewellery is unaffected and then for no apparent reason begins to oxidise. these acids vary depending on the time of year, the month, one's diet or stress levels. how do you stop it? normally it will stop of its own accord after a short while and the oxidisation will wear off by continued wearing. in the meantime you can polish it daily with a silver polishing cloth or use a "silver dip" solution.

special finishes

matt finishes are achieved by uniformly scratching or pitting the surface of a metal. this is only a temporary finish and most items finished in this manner will eventually develop their own patina. if you need to clean a matt finished piece use a tooth brush and toothpaste and rinse under a running tap. most items made by us can be re-finished - we will generally do this for free the first time and then for a small charge thereafter hammered finishes aren't affected by normal daily wear.

gemstone set jewellery

all of our gemstone jewellery is set with highest quality gemstones using traditional rub-over settings. this occasionally means that the stones move in the settings as we do not use glue. DON'T WORRY - the stones are secure our confidence in our settings means we will replace stones FREE OF CHARGE should they ever come out.

cleaning gemstones

most items should be cleaned by soaking them in hot soapy water for ten minutes, then removing and cleaning with a soft bristle toothbrush under running warm water. rinse with water that is as hot as you can bear, shake off excess water and dry with a hair drier to stop water marks. WARNING this is not the case with soft stones such as turquoise, opal and lapis. these should not be cleaned or come into contact with detergents (don't wash/wash-up wearing rings) and never be allowed to come into contact with wet aerosol propellant (from perfume, hair finishes, etc.) or be left for prolonged periods of time in strong sunlight. to keep the lustre of these gems, 'feed' them fine natural oils. one way of doing this is to rub them along the sides of your nose before you bathe in the morning. this doesn't sound very pleasant but it works!

we hope that you enjoy wearing our jewellery and if you have any queries please contact us:

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