Caring for your pieces

Brass and copper are living metals: they deepen in color as they are worn, and many clients prefer them that way. Stainless steel and titanium stay as they left the cutter. A few minutes now and then keeps any of them as you like them.

Brass

Brass warms and darkens with skin, air and time. Wear it often; store it dry when you are not wearing it. To bring back the shine, use a soft cloth with a little brass polish, or lemon juice with baking soda, then rinse and dry completely. Keep acids away from gold-filled ear wires.

Pieces finished by hand leave our bench with a fine coat of wax. Renew it from time to time with a jewelry wax, applied thinly and buffed with a clean cloth. Wax slows the change in color; it does not stop it.

Copper

Copper deepens toward russet and, in time, a soft green. To return it to its first color, use a soft cloth with copper polish, or lemon juice and salt, then rinse and dry completely. It is waxed at the bench in the same way as brass.

Stainless steel

It asks for nothing. Rinse it if you wish, and dry it with a soft cloth.

Titanium

Light enough to forget you are wearing it, and just as undemanding. Wipe it dry if needed.

Keeping your pieces

Give each piece its own place, out of the bathroom: in its Arkive case or a lined jewelry box, where metal does not touch metal. Hang earrings so their wires keep their shape, and lay hair sticks flat.

To avoid

Ultrasonic cleaners on earrings, bleach, and long soaks in salt water.

If a piece needs our attention, write to us at hello@arkiveshop.com.