<p>My favorite jewelry story was when I went with my best friend to pick out a ring for her from her husband. We went to reputable jeweler in a major city. While we were there the sales woman talked me into letting her clean my diamond. She took it out back and was gone a long time. Then the other employees went back there, too. I started getting nervous as I had heard stories of diamonds being switched etc, even though I couldn’t imagine anyone trying it with the customer standing at the counter!</p>
<p>Finally, they all emerged from the back room and the sales woman said “We were all trying to figure out what on earth you do for a living!” I said “I’m an elementary art teacher”. She laughed and said that none of the employees had ever seen such a collection of strange debris between a diamond and its setting. It stayed clean for about a week!</p>
<p>Very funny EPTR! You must have had quite a collection in there! I take my rings and watch off around the house because I don’t like the feeling of them clanking around while I cook and clean. Even so, the grease and whatever accumulates and dulls the stones. I’ve never found a really great way to clean them. Does anyone have an unique ideas for cleaning diamond rings?</p>
<p>I just had my diamond solitaire repaired as the stone was slightly loose. The nice woman at our local, independent jeweler said to bring it back any time I wanted it cleaned, no charge for that. She said some women bring their rings in every week for cleaning!</p>
<p>GourmetMom – Take them to a reputable jeweler and ask if they’ll steam them for you. It only takes a few moments. They usually have a machine in the back that directs a blast of steam at the ring. It doesn’t harm it or loosen the stone the way brushing will but instantly gets rid of all the accumulated lotion, soap and associated gunk, and makes your stones look bright and lively again. I used to offer to do it even for looky-lous because I hate the sight of a dirty ring. Clean diamonds are happy diamonds! </p>
<p>If you can’t do that often, get a little pot of jewelry cleaner from K-Mart or some where. It’s mostly ammonia but buffered a little with other stuff. Put one ring at a time in the basket, tighten the lid and agitate it. Don’t put two or more in as they may scratch each other. Rinse with cool water. It’s not as good as the steam for getting it really clean but it helps between cleanings. </p>
<p>If you can take off your rings when you put lotion on, that will help keep them clean. </p>
<p>Emilybee – Do you swing your pearls like a flapper? I love a doubled or tripled strand…always looks elegant but not too ‘done’.</p>
<p>Same! The only jewelry I wear is my narrow wedding band (has never left my finger for almost 21 years ). But I also loathe shopping malls, and my main criteria for shoes is how comfortable they are. I think it’s a missing chromosome or something.</p>
<p>When DH really wants to get my goat, he threatens to go buy a ruby pinky ring.</p>
<p>oldfort- Great story about the Rolex! I wasn’t so lucky years ago in my ebay purchase of a certain Rolex model I had been coveting. A private seller listed it (this was before Paypal days) and explained that it had been a gift from a boyfriend. There were pictures etc. I sent a money order and …no watch. I had an address and phone number. Turned out the person’s mother answered the phone and told me she had no daughter- it was her son who scammed me. He was a transvestite dancer. I turned it over to the local police. They picked him/her up, but I never got my money back. Lesson learned.</p>
<p>I like the look of jewelry on other women. I like the understated, simple, tasteful, elegant stuff–nothing too wild and daring.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, on me is another matter. I never could stand big earrings and now I don’t even like the feel of studs in my pierced ears. I used to wear necklaces daily to work, but now have difficulty clasping them and they make me feel claustrophobic. Bracelets annoy me because I’m at a desk all day and they clank and snag on keyboards and calculators.</p>
<p>I do wear my wedding band 24/7 except for dirty work or heavy lifting. Sigh, I’m a jewelry failure…</p>
<p>I have a very old friend who is a jeweler. he tightens my prongs , repairs them, etc, every few years. He has also made us a few pieces over the years, giving me credit for old gold he reuses. It has always worked very well even though I moved from that town years ago, I am usually there often enough to drop off the items and he ships them back, no worries.</p>
<p>A few months ago we did the usual thing and UPS managed to lose my wedding ring:eek: Since I’ve been married nearly 30 years, I am trying to be mature and grown up about it, but will admit to a few tears. The package was insured, but it was a real hassle getting paid because it was shipped via the UPS store franchise and had to go through two different insurance companies.</p>
<p>The local branch was great about it, called me several times to see if we could figure anything out, tracked it to about 100 miles away, where is was loaded, but not into the special box for valuables. The local hub even took apart their conveyer belt to see if it was stuck.</p>
<p>Now I have the money, but it is probably not enough to pay retail for it and with so many other pressing needs I think I am going to delay replacing it for a while. Maybe it will show up later, they said sometimes lost items show up months later.</p>
<p>That’s terrible, somemom. I hope it turns up. If you feel ‘naked’ without it, there are some very nice inexpensive band or stack rings out there that are well-made and won’t turn your finger green! I like shopnbc’s Gem Treasures and NYC II brands.</p>
<p>“Does anyone have an unique ideas for cleaning diamond rings?”</p>
<p>I sneak my jewelry into the bio lab - they have 200 proof ethanol, disposable Falcon tubes and sonicators. People say that pave should not be sonicated, but I’ve cleaned mine by gently sonicating the pieces on a kimwipe under a layer of ethanol.</p>
<p>I’ll bet that does the job, bunsenburner. I have a simple ultrasonic jewelry cleaner and I use a diluted ammonia solution - it seems to do the job, but I never know if I’m removing the oils from inside the mounting. I don’t wear my jewelry around the house, so it never gets truly dirty, but I also like maximum sparkle and I know that even a trace amount of oil will dull the shine. Shreve, Crump and Low has cleaned my engagement ring several times (even though we didn’t buy it there) and they use a steam cleaner which really works well. The diamond expert there says that steam heat is the most effective way to remove oil from inside the setting.</p>
<p>I love jewelry , but really don’t have a lot of it. What I do wear is my better jewelry. I have a very nice opal and diamond necklace and earrings , but I am afraid to wear them because I lost one of the stones and it had to go back to the manufacturer for months until they found a matching stone.
I have about three pairs of earrings I wear regularly , mostly my white gold hoops
I wear my wedding set of three rings ( solitaire , five stone anniversary ring and wedding band
Probably my favorite piece is a diamond ring that was made for me.
I was given a one carat diamond that had belonged to my grandmother
The stone had an interesting history because my grandfather had been a leather merchant who sold to many of New England’s shoe companies. There was an owner of a shoe company who could not pay my grandfather cash so he paid him with two one carat stones…this was during the depression
My grandfather made the stones into two rings for my grandmother
My husband took the stone to our jeweler who remarkable found two matching stones
( the cut was an old one that hasn’t been done like this since the 1930s if I recall )
He did this for me at a time when there was a lot of controversy about blood diamonds and reports of diamonds being mined and money being channeled to al quada , so it was nice to know that my ring was made of older stones that had a different kind of history attached to them :)</p>
<p>Please make sure that your jewelry has an up to date appraisal. I was going over the appraisals on my jewelry recently, and the gold was $480 an ounce at the time. Now it is over $1500. I have also updated my insurance.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten invitations to Silpada parties recently and of course if I’m invited, I attend. If i attend, I buy!! Their jewelry–mostly sterling silver–is pretty good quality and kind of fun, especially for summer. Anybody else bought their stuff recently?</p>
<p>I think sonication in a solution of rubbing alcohol with a drop of soap will remove the oils and gunk even better than ethanol. I will give it a shot next time I clean my earrings.</p>
I inherited serveral pieces from my Nana and my mom has given me some of hers already. </p>
). But I also loathe shopping malls, and my main criteria for shoes is how comfortable they are. I think it’s a missing chromosome or something.</p>