Never sleep with your jewelry on! Okay, we know many of you are guilty of this because our repair department is ALWAYS busy. Sleeping with your jewelry causes undue stress and wear and tear, more so than wearing your jewelry during the day. This is because your jewelry is literally being crushed, yanked and stretched for eight hours each night! Your bracelets and necklaces and anklets especially are at risk. Each time you roll over or change positions while sleeping your jewelry is exposed to the pull and push of your body against your mattress and pillow and blanket. This is bad. What about your engagement and wedding ring? While they are not as vulnerable, they are still at risk of damage. Prongs can catch on fabrics and get pulled open without your knowing. Best to take it all off . . . the jewelry, that is. :)
Never do yard work while wearing your rings! Yes, you probably wear gloves while raking and digging and mowing in your yard, but that is not enough to prevent your rings from being damaged. Raking and digging and mowing are hard work! Those activities place a lot of pressure on your hands and fingers, and on your rings. Prongs can get bent or broken. Delicate gems like opals and emeralds can chip or break completely. Thin rings can get bent out of shape or snap. And if you don't wear gloves you risk even more damage. We all know what sandpaper would do to our rings, and we all know that sandpaper is made out of the same stuff in our gardens. Sand. Enough said.
Never take your jewelry swimming at the beach! I know what you're thinking. If I can't wear my jewelry in the pool or to bed or while doing yard work or at the beach, where can I wear it? Only at work? (we will get to that one next!) Why should you take off your jewelry before going to the beach? I have a customer who is retired and spends much of his free time metal-detecting. He finds all sorts of things, much of it jewelry. He's found thousands and thousands of dollars of lost jewelry. And guess where he finds it. Yup! At the beach. And guess where at the beach. In the water. The beach is like the Bermuda Triangle of lost jewelry. All the conditions are right for disaster. You're all slathered up in slippery oils, you're walking around in the sand and you're frolicking in the water. Rings that are a little loose on you suddenly slip off. Anklets and bracelets that are little worn suddenly snap. The sand and the water swallow them up. They are gone before your eyes, only to be found by a metal-detecting retiree.
Never wear your jewelry at work . . . if your job is physically demanding! We can all agree that an electrician, carpenter, stone mason or mechanic should probably not wear their jewelry on the job. In fact, most employers in those fields do not allow their workers to wear jewelry. But there some other jobs that can be damaging to your jewelry that you might not think about. Many rings, especially taller rings like engagement rings, are damaged by filing cabinets while filing papers. Watches and glued items like pearl rings can be damaged if exposed to water if you are a waitress or nurse or teacher. I once had a lab technician whose watch never kept time properly because he worked at the hospital giving MRIs and the magnetism he encountered affected his watch.
Never clean your ring with toothpaste! Apparently there are some people who have been told that toothpaste makes a handy jewelry cleaner. The problem is that most toothpaste contains fluoride and fluoride is much like chlorine when it comes to precious metals and their alloys. It can damage them. Need a quick and safe jewelry cleaning solution? Mix a little dish washing liquid (make sure it's chlorine free) and water and use that.
If you find yourself forgetting to take off your jewelry when you should, or you just don't want to, remember one thing: We do all our jewelry repair on premises right here in our store at 42 Central Street, Southbridge, Mass!
Shawn Cormier
42 Central Street
Southbridge, Ma 01550
tel 1-508-764-7415
www.ecormiers.com
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