DIY Jewelry Cleaning and Repair

My mom has loved to keep cute things from my childhood. One thing she has held on all these years is my "kid jewelry". Sweet little necklaces, charms, and rings. All right so I may never wear these things again, but that doesn't mean that I don't want them to look nice. Or I might be able to incorporate them into some vintage look.

 Everything was so tarnished and sad. So I whipped out my trusty Tarnax and cleaning cloth.

I love the satisfaction I get from wiping away years of tarnish off of a favorite old charm.

Just a few moments of rubbing on the solution and the shine came right back. I rinsed and dried each piece. Then for a convenient and safe storage I put each item into a plastic baggie. I used some old button baggies, my mom saved off of some new blouses. The plastic keeps the pieces safe from new tarnish forming and keeps them from doing the tangle tango in my jewelry box.

Now they are clean and ready for whenever I want to wear or share these pieces.

I also took the time to put some charms on my charm bracelet. I'm not big on wearing bracelets but its nice to know its good to go if I ever want to. All it took was a few o-rings and some needle nosed pliers. Years of the charms sitting loosely in a box, now have finally been put in their rightful place.

Lastly while I had out my findings I found some fishhook earring posts. I took a few more minutes and switched out some old fishhooks on some costume jewelry.

I have found that no matter how hard you scrub the cheap-o jewelry, the tarnish never comes off. I can't help myself though, I love my old Claire's jewelry. So instead of chucking it, I just refurbished it. Now the posts won't tarnish my ears when I wear them.

Just because I accomplished a lot doesn't mean I spent all afternoon doing it. I really only worked on this project for about 30 minutes. Now I have new earring posts for 2 sets of earrings, cleaned up almost a dozen pieces of jewelry and hooked up my long lost charms to their bracelet.

Yeah I could have just concentrated on whatever program I had on TV and just lounged on the sofa. But why not be productive while watching TV or listening to some tunes. It did make me feel great to get those relics of my past spruced up.

So why not pull out your old jewels. Get them organized, cleaned up, and repaired. Do it yourself and save a few dollars.

You might find something you forgot all about. Or clean up a gem you didn't realize was so awesome!