This doesn't really have to do with painting but I haven't had much time for painting lately - hopefully that will change this afternoon. However, I did uncover a cool little trick a few weeks ago about cleaning silver and I thought I would share my success!
Now, beware, this only worked with my silver jewelry that has a higher silver content. Most of my other silver has a lower content and lower quality. On those, I was able to remove some of the tarnish but not all of it.
So, the science behind this is really cool - basically, when we wear our silver a lot, our oils from our skin protect it from the hydrogen sulfide that causes tarnish. Conversely, when we have silver that we don't wear often, hydrogen sulfide is able to chemically bond to our silver, forming a top layer of tarnish. Only the top bit of silver is affected and, from what I read, the tarnish can actually act as a barrier to protect the silver underneath from more harsh chemical reactions.
So, to remove tarnish, you simply ask the sulfur to bond to something more alluring... like aluminum!
Just follow these easy steps to clean your jewelry:
1. Line a dish with aluminum foil. Add about a teaspoon of baking soda to the bowl in the center of the dish. Add in your tarnished silver.
2. Bring water to a boil. Pour over silver and baking soda in aluminum lined dish. There will be some fizzing and, I'll warn you, it doesn't smell great.
Now, beware, this only worked with my silver jewelry that has a higher silver content. Most of my other silver has a lower content and lower quality. On those, I was able to remove some of the tarnish but not all of it.
So, the science behind this is really cool - basically, when we wear our silver a lot, our oils from our skin protect it from the hydrogen sulfide that causes tarnish. Conversely, when we have silver that we don't wear often, hydrogen sulfide is able to chemically bond to our silver, forming a top layer of tarnish. Only the top bit of silver is affected and, from what I read, the tarnish can actually act as a barrier to protect the silver underneath from more harsh chemical reactions.
So, to remove tarnish, you simply ask the sulfur to bond to something more alluring... like aluminum!
Just follow these easy steps to clean your jewelry:
1. Line a dish with aluminum foil. Add about a teaspoon of baking soda to the bowl in the center of the dish. Add in your tarnished silver.
2. Bring water to a boil. Pour over silver and baking soda in aluminum lined dish. There will be some fizzing and, I'll warn you, it doesn't smell great.
As you can see from this picture, the tarnish immediately starts bonding to the aluminum.
3. When the water cools, dry your silver with a paper towel - make sure to wipe all of it down as there is usually some baking soda residual. Use a polishing cloth to really bring out the shine.
Here are some before photos and photos of my silver after I dried it with a paper towel. I was very impressed!
These are earrings my mother gave me a few years ago. I think they are really pretty and I used to wear them pretty often but they are heavy. They became tarnished really quickly and I didn't know how to clean them so I haven't worn them in a long time!
And voila! All clean :)
Another little ring given to me by my mom.
All clean!
Clean silver!
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