Care for Your Vintage & Antique Jewelry

Care for Your Vintage & Antique Jewelry

Once you’ve purchased your vintage and antique jewelry pieces, you’ll want to preserve their beauty and value. A few simple steps can help you maintain your vintage costume jewelry.

• Wear vintage jewelry with care: Vintage jewelry is difficult to repair, so wear it with care. Remove your jewelry when using household cleaners and when doing physical activities.
• Store vintage jewelry separately: Store jewelry separately in soft, zipped-up pouches to protect your pieces from the elements and from dust, which is abrasive.
• Use a jewelry polishing cloth: Keep it simple. Use a special jewelry polishing cloth to keep jewelry dust-free.
• Remove grime from vintage jewelry: Use a baby wipe or glass cleaner and a soft cloth to remove grime from stones.
• Keep vintage jewelry dry: Never place vintage jewelry and antique jewelry directly under running water.

Cameos, shell cameos in particular, can discolor and crack from drying and aging, and require special care. You can do your part to keep them clean and moisturized.

• Store your cameos: Store cameos in a clean, dry place.
• Clean your cameos: Completely cleanse your cameos once or twice a year. Clean cameos gently with a soft-bristle toothbrush in a mild soap-and-water solution. Rinse the cameo thoroughly with warm water immediately after cleaning. Never soak shell cameos or “soft” stones in any cleaning solution for more than 30 seconds.
• Prevent cameos from drying: Moisturize the cameo with mineral oil or baby oil. Apply the oil with your finger, a cotton swab, or a soft cloth. Let the cameo soak overnight.

Discover Types of Vintage & Antique Jewelry

Types of Vintage & Antique Jewelry

Seek hallmarks of antique jewelry and vintage jewelry to round out your collection.

• Bakelite jewelry: Bakelite, also known as Catalin, is a dense synthetic resin that can be molded and carved to make jewelry, among other things. Patterned bakelite items of the Depression era, created by integrating one color with another, are collector’s items today.
• Bookchains: Victorian-era bookchain jewelry is made up of engraved rectangular links that look like tiny books. Large lockets were often integrated as an elaborate touch.
• Cameos: Cameo refers to a carving style where a design is up above the surface, in relief. Carved on a shell or in stone, such as sardonyx, the most common cameos are portraits of women, which were particularly popular in Victorian times.
• Celluloid jewelry: Celluloid jewelry, made from one of the earliest plastics, was first manufactured in the late 1800s. Derived from a natural plant fiber, celluloid was used for a variety of objects, including hair accessories, which were commonly set with rhinestones. (Warning: celluloid deteriorates if not stored properly and is flammable as well.)
• Doublets: Doublets are two pieces of inexpensive jewelry (usually a garnet and some colored glass) attached to create the illusion of a ruby, an emerald, or some equally impressive gemstone.
• Filigree jewelry: Filigree jewelry is ornamental handiwork of gold or silver wire twisted into intricate patterns and fused into place.
• Jet jewelry: Jet jewelry, also known as gagate, is a form of fossilized coal that was mostly mined near Whitby, England. The hard, yet lightweight black stone was commonly used in mourning jewelry during the Victorian period.
• Lace pins: Ladies of the Victorian and Edwardian eras used lace pins to hold their scarves in place.
• Micromosaics: Made with tiny, colorful tiles of stone, glass, and other materials, micromosaics are small pictures or decorations commonly found on pins. Some Italian-made treasures utilized over a thousand tiles per square inch!
• Mourning jewelry: Queen Victoria popularized mourning jewelry after her husband Albert died in 1861. Many widows then took up the tradition of wearing it to mourn the loss of a loved one. Mourning jewelry is often black, made of jet or black glass and metal with a Japanned finish. It is fairly subdued, featuring little ornamentation or details.
• Signed or stamped jewelry: Signed jewelry and stamped jewelry undergo a process where a punch or die cuts or embosses a sheet of metal with a mark or pattern in relief. Mass-produced jewelry and many medallions are made using this process.

How It All Began...

Since my early 20's I have been in love with treasure hunting. I love going to antique flea markets, any kind of swap meets, garage & estate sales and high end thrift stores. You just never know what you are going to find! As a matter of fact that is what I am going to go do again today. Hope to find something beautiful to resale or just to keep as all my own. I love the lifestyle and my dream is to one day go to the 400 mile long garage sale on the east coast one day! I just can't wait! I will need a uhaul, I'm sure! I love running my three online vintage shops now but still go out and sell at local antique flea markets from time to time just to stay connected in the community.
I hope you are able to come back often and to find beautiful additions to your home and to adorn your body with beautiful jewels!
Thanks for stopping by.....