How to Clean your Silver Jewellery the Green Way

One of the best pieces of advice to keep your jewellery clean and tarnish free is to keep it in a ziplock bag and don’t leave it in the bathroom. Technically that’s actually two pieces of advice, I like to be generous, but how do you clean it when it’s looking a bit lacklustre and tarnished?

There is a very effective and green way to cleaning silver jewellery without using stinky, toxic chemicals.

• Line a shallow plastic tub with tinfoil, shiny side up, and fill it with enough boiling water to cover your jewellery.

• Dissolve 2 tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda in the water.

• If you are cleaning jewellery with any lampwork glass or gemstones you will need to leave the water to cool a bit because boiling water can shock and shatter glass. Once the water has cooled off a bit put your jewellery in and leave it for a few minutes, the tanish should transfer itself to the tinfoil leaving your jewellery clean and shiny.

• Remove the piece, carefully polish with a soft dry cloth and once completely dry store in a ziplock bag.

If your jewellery is badly tarnished it might take a few tries to get it clean again.