Care

Tarnishing is a dull, grey hue that appears on the surface of metal over time. Please note that silver and brass are susceptible to tarnishing, this is a natural and unavoidable process. The guidelines below will help you to manage and avoid tarnishing as much as possible.

Our sterling silver is .925 pure, with the other 7.5% comprising of other metal alloys which make the silver hard enough to be made into jewellery. It is the way the other metals, mostly copper, interact with the environment that cause a jewellery piece to tarnish.

All sterling silver and brass will tarnish over time and under the right conditions. The amount of tarnish that occurs on an individual piece of jewellery depends on the individual body chemistry of the wearer, the environment and how the piece is cared for.

Oxidation or tarnish is a natural chemical reaction rather than a defect or fault with the piece. 

WEAR AND TEAR

When wearing an item of jewellery, it is very normal for scratches and marks to appear. As some of our items have large, flat surface areas, when the item makes contact with hard surfaces, it will create a visible mark or scratch. Metals have various levels of hardness and when they come into contact with something that is harder than them, they will become damaged. While metal may give the illusion of being indestructible, if any item made from silver, gold or brass is bent out of shape or force is applied, it will become brittle, crack and eventually break.

As much as we would like to create jewellery that does not wear over time at all, this is an impossible promise to make. Companies who are promising jewellery that doesn't wear over time will be using strong chemical / plastic coatings to protect items. While we do use coatings to protect your items in some cases, we prefer that any coatings or protective treatments that we use are thin enough to let the natural precious metal sing.