Top 10 Enemies of Gold Jewelry: #1

TAKE IT OFF!!

Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever taking your jewelry off!

I may sound like a broken record, but it really is important- in certain circumstances- to TAKE IT OFF!!!

I just read through a long list of comments on Yahoo Answers from people advising a newly engaged girl to NEVER take her ring off. In fact, I think every comment told her that this would be okay! These people are obviously not jewelers!!

First of all, never EVER taking your jewelry off results in incredibly dirty jewelry. I am a firm believer that jewelry looks best when it is shiny/sparkly. To achieve this end, it must be CLEANED!

This is much easier to do when it is off you finger since most rings containing stones have openings on the insides so the stones can be cleaned from all sides. Dirt and oils (as well as bacteria!) get caught up in these crevices and crannies causing the stones to look dull, lifeless or just plain gross. When you bought or recieved the ring, it was clean and shiny and that is why you loved it. Why would you let it stop looking like that if you could help it?

So many people come in our shop to get their rings cleaned saying, "Oh, I haven't brought it in for YEARS..." (Yes, I know you can clean it at home, but there are a lot of cleaners out there that can harm your ring, and nothing seems to work quite as well as an industrial strength ultrasonic cleaner! Also, most people do not have a profesional jeweler at home who can check that stones are tight and everything is in good working order!!) or, "Well I NEVER take it off..." When I hear this, the first thought in my mind is, "Oh dear..."

Why? 9 times out of 10, this means that when the ring is handed to me, it will have all of those years of gunk and grime so firmly embedded into the ring, that I will need dental tools to scrape it all out!! A time or two, I have wondered if the mass of dead tissue and filth found in a ring had perhaps gained sentient properties! This is, perhaps, more graphic than you'd like to be reading right now, but this happens so often that I feel I must combat this idea that constant wear is neither harmful to your ring nor to your finger!!

For example, you wouldn't take raw meat, wrap it in a wet cloth, and tie it to your wrist for a week, would you? I mean, you wash your hands and shower, so it should be clean, right? But when you handle raw meat, those juices can get caught up under your ring and soak into the dirt or dust hiding in there, then the warm, moist and dark environment formed between your ring and your finger becomes a sinister breeding ground for germs!

So, for both aesthetic and sanitary reasons, I always recommend removing your ring prior to food prep or even handwashing. Soap and lotion are 2 of the most common grime grabbers to get stuck under a ring and dull your diamonds!

If you are concerned about losing your ring or having it go down the drain, have a specific place that you can put it, which is safe and protected, while you do your household chores. I've heard of placing it in a shot glass in the back of a cupboard so it can't fall out, or a little bowl on the counter away from the sink. I actually have a place for my rings in each room of my house, so no matter where I am when I start doing something that could harm my rings, I have a safe place to put them!

Other household chores can be just as dangerous to your rings (and other jewelry). Necklaces can get caught on things as you bend over to reach lower areas, or- in one case- fall off while using a paper shredder and get shredded along with the paper!! (We never were able to determine the original design from the mangled heap brought to us, but we were able to extract the diamonds and reset them!) Bracelets commonly get hooked or snagged on things around the house and can bend or break. Cleaning agents are often abrasive (and can scratch both gold and some gemstones) or chemically reactive to the gold and can eat away at it!! Lifting furniture is a good way to get something caught or smashed, even if you don't drop anything, the weight and pressure can flatten or distort your ring!

In short, there are literally hundreds of reasons to take your jewelry off, (hopefully in the course of this "Top Ten" list we've brought a few to your attention!!) but if you still can't remember or refuse to because of sentimental attachment, FOR THE SAFETY OF YOUR RING AND YOUR FINGER, bring it in- OFTEN- to be cleaned and checked! This ensures that your ring stays clean and sparkly, that your prongs and shank are strong, and that you can, still, remove your ring!