Silver Care

Wear & Tear

Treat your Filthy Gorgeous pieces with care

Many of our pieces are handmade and all of them need to be treated with care. Silver is soft so it will possibly dent if dropped or scratch when it rubs against other things. Some surface scratches cannot be avoided, this is normal wear and tear. Shell is delicate so may break if dropped onto a hard surface. It is natural for silver to tarnish. Like other precious metal alloys, it can oxidise with time.

This is caused by various factors, such as:

  • Humidity, moisture and air pollution
  • The acidity of a person’s skin
  • Perfume and other hair & skin products
  • Cleaning products including bleach & chlorine

Storage & Cleaning

Keep your silver looking its best

Properly maintained silver jewellery improves with age and develops a lush patina. Treat your silver well, care for it properly and it will reward you with a long life and a lustrous look.

To keep your silver looking its best we recommend keeping it out of the air when you’re not wearing it. A small ziplock plastic bag is perfect and if you keep pieces bagged individually it will prevent them knocking against each other and getting scratched.

Please do not shower or swim with your jewellery on. Water and shower products can damage gemstones and shell, also silver really dislikes chlorinated and salt water.

  • The best way to clean your silver is with a silver polishing cloth. You can purchase our recommended silver polishing cloths online here. Do not use anything rough like tissue or kitchen roll incase the fibres in these products cause scratching.
  • Gold plated pieces must be treated very gently so as not to rub off the gold coating. Wash in lukewarm water and use a soft cloth to dry. We don’t advise using a silver cloth..
  • For heavily tarnished or hard to clean pieces you can use mild soap and water and after drying with a soft cloth, use your silver polishing cloth for the final shine.
  • Bicarbonate of soda in hot water will also lift the tarnish from hard-to-clean pieces but can only be used for plain silver without shell, pearl, gold and gemstones. Put a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into hot water, immerse your silver and check after 20 minutes. If it’s clean, you can dry it with a soft cloth and finish it off with your silver cloth.