Affordable and Beautiful Sterling Silver Jewellery.

Posted by David Botham
6
Feb 28, 2013
950 Views
Jewellery and silver. These two words are enough to bring a sparkle to a woman’s eyes. Jewellery is long associated with women since the starting of social world.

What is a sterling silver?

Sterling silver is an alloy of silver that contains 92.5% mass of silver and 7.5% mass of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925.

Fine silver is accurately 99.9% pure and is normally very soft for producing functional objects. So, the silver is usually alloyed with copper to give it strength while maintaining the ductility and beauty of the metal. Other metals can also replace the copper, usually with the intention to improve many properties of the basic alloy like reducing casting porosity and increasing resistance to tarnishing. These replacement metals can include germanium, zinc and platinum, silicon and boron. Silver jewelry is normally plated with another metal to protect it from tarnishing. There are two types of plating for silver jewelry: nickel and rhodium plating. Nickel plating has a whitish look and rhodium plating has a dark look. Rhodium is used to plate white gold and platinum jewelry and is much more costly than nickel. On the other hand, some silver jewelry is not plated.

The various types of sterling silver jewelry can be rings, pendants, earrings, necklaces, pearl sets and more.

The FTC (U.S. Federal trade commission) rule says that jewellery sold in the U.S cannot bear silver markings or be described as silver, solid silver, sterling or abbreviation of Ster. UNLESS it contains at least 92.5% pure silver.

Copper is the most common used metal to make up remaining 7.5% of sterling silver/

Now that we know the reason of why sterling silver jewelry is beautiful, let us see how it is cleaned and stored.

For cleaning sterling silver jewelry, a jewelry cloth is used normally that can be bought from a jewelry accessory store. It is suggested not to use any hard object to clean it. The Silver jewelry is immerged in the solution for cleaner, for half a minute to a minute and then it is rinsed with water.

The sterling silver jewelry should be stored ideally in a cool place away from sunlight. If it is not to be used for a long time, then it is better to put it in air tight bag and place it in a drawer.

Caring of your silver jewelry.

Since it is sterling silver jewelry, it is a good thing to think of caring for it. It should be cared like other precious jewelry.

Ø It is always advisable to remove your jewelry before putting on makeup and perfumes or hair products so as to absorb them in your body before putting the jewelry. This will prevent any fingerprint marks.

Never wear your jewelry when you are working with other household chemicals or in hot water or swimming pool.

Ø Always wash your jewelry for cleaning purpose with mild soap and little warm water and then drying it with a cotton cloth that is soft before storing it somewhere in air tight bag.

Ø Keep your jewelry away from damaging foods like eggs, olives vinegar, onions, Salt and juices.

It is quite affordable almost everywhere to buy a sterling silver jewelry. In United States, The current price of Sterling Silver is approx. $ 0.86 per Gram. The price is decided depending on the size and the decoration on it. A small but good piece can be of cost of $ 13.5 while a little expensive piece like ‘Millacreli Faceted Pink Glass Square Ring can cost up to $ 71.8. In India the price ranges from Rs 700 onwards to as high as Rs 50,000 or more.

In United Kingdom the price goes from lowest simple jewelry to a more decorative piece. The price for the jewelry from lowest starts from £ 24 to £ 1000 and more.

David Botham is an expert is researching on sterling silver jewellery . And above content is a part of his research.
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