The goldCaring for gold
Deep gold isa soft gold.
A 21 or 22 carat piece will never tarnish. The colour is the metal, and the metal does not change. But high-carat gold is soft. It marks and bends before harder alloys do, so most of caring for it is knowing when to take it off.
Most of the careis habit.
Nothing here needs buying, and none of it takes a minute. These are the four habits we go through at the counter when a piece leaves the shop, written down for the drawer at home.
Wearing it every day
High-carat gold is made to be worn, and the making allows for its softness. A 22 carat bangle runs heavier than an 18 carat one because thin work would not survive the wrist. Even so, the metal marks. Take it off for the gym, the garden and any job that puts tools in your hands, and expect rings to age fastest of everything in the cabinet, simply because hands do the work. Why the deepest colour comes with the softest metal is explained on the 22 carat page.
Storing it
Gold scratches gold. Pieces loose together in one box dull each other faster than years of wearing will, so give every piece its own pouch or its own box. The box it came in is made for the job. Fasten the clasp before a chain is put away and lay it flat, and it will come out the way it went in. A set can share a tray, laid out so nothing touches.
Cleaning it at home
Warm water, a drop of dishwashing liquid, a soak of ten minutes and a soft cloth. That is the whole method, and it is the only one a high-carat piece needs. A soft brush reaches into pattern work where the cloth cannot. Rinse well and dry fully before the piece goes back in its pouch. Nothing abrasive comes near deep gold: no toothpaste, no bicarb, no polishing cloth with cutting compound in it. A soft metal keeps every scratch an abrasive leaves, and whatever cuts the surface carries gold away with it.
Perfume, pools and chlorine
Gold itself shrugs off nearly everything, which is why it comes out of the ground bright after centuries. Chlorine is the exception worth respecting. Pool and spa water works on the alloy metals in a piece and, given enough summers, on its solder joins, so gold comes off before a swim and stays off around bleach. Perfume and hairspray do no harm to the metal, but they lay down the film that makes gold look tired. Jewellery goes on last, after the scent, and comes off first at night.
Do this,not that.
Do
- Gold on last, after the perfume
- Off for the pool, the gym and the garden
- One piece to a pouch, chains fastened
- Warm soapy water and a soft cloth
- A proper dry before it is put away
- A clasp checked the day it feels different
Don’t
- No toothpaste, bicarb or anything gritty
- No bleach and no chlorine while it is on
- Don’t sleep in chains or drop earrings
- Don’t let pieces tumble loose together
- Don’t bend a bent bangle back yourself
- Don’t polish at home. A polish cuts.
About that bangle: soft gold bends without complaint, but bending it back hardens the metal until it cracks. Straightening is a quick job at the bench and a sad story at the kitchen table.
The bench doesthe rest.
Habit keeps the film and the knocks away. What it cannot do is reach inside the pattern, judge a clasp, or lift the mark you notice every time the light catches it. That part is bench work, and the bench is here on Prospect Road.
So bring it in once in a while. A proper clean at the counter gets out what the soft brush cannot, and while the piece is with us we look over the clasp and the wear points. A stretched link is a small repair today and a lost chain next year.
That is the quiet point of all of it. Gold cared for this way keeps its weight, and weight is all the scale ever reads. The bangle you look after is not just bright. It is intact.
When in doubt,bring it in.
A clasp that feels different, a bangle that took a knock, a chain gone dull. We will look at it across the counter and tell you straight whether it needs anything at all.
364-378 Prospect Road, Kilburn SA 5084
Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30am – 6pm