tricks of the trade

Keeping your joolz bright and shiny can sometimes be a challenge. Gold dulls, silver tarnishes and stones lose their sparkle. What's a girl to do?

What this girl does is head for the nearest Wegmans to buy a box of baking soda. A gem in its own right, baking soda is the answer to many household dilemmas. Did you know that you can:

• use a toothbrush dipped in baking soda to scrub the cutting wheel of a handheld or electric can opener


• remove crayon marks on walls with a damp sponge dipped in baking soda


• add a teaspoon of baking soda to your usual shampoo bottle to help remove buildup from conditioners, mousses, and sprays, and to improve manageability


• soak cosmetic sponges or makeup applicators in a baking soda solution overnight to remove leftover beauty products

Baking soda is also the easiest, cheapest and most environmentally-friendly way to clean your jewelry. Make a paste of 3 parts baking soda and one part water and work it onto and into your jewelry. Rinse it off with lukewarm water and then pat dry. You'll be amazed at how quickly your joolz lose their tarnish and get back their sparkle. Just another trick of the trade.

windex to the rescue

We had a customer try on a ring today - right size, she thought...but definitely the wrong fit. After she struggled a bit and had a teensy look of panic on her face, I brought out the Windex bottle (what jewelry store isn't well-equipped with glass cleaner?) and gave her finger a couple of squirts. The ring came off with ease and she was smiling again.

That Windex - hasn't failed me yet.

tricks of the trade

I'm not a gemologist, nor do I have any formal training in jewelry fabrication. I do, however, love jewelry and I am always on the hunt for "something new;" I also need to take care of that something new.

Trying to keep my silver jewelry looking shiny has always been a problem. It would tarnish, as all silver does. I would try to polish it with a polishing cloth, never having very good results. And if there were stones or pearls in the piece, it was almost impossible to get in all the nooks and crannies.

One day a customer returned with a piece of 14K gold jewelry she had purchased here. She had noticed a couple of dark specks on the metal, specks that had not been there when she had purchased the necklace a few months before. I was at a loss. How could I clean this so that it looked like new again?

I called my friend, Matt Wahl, of Forsythe Jewelers in Rochester. I had been a long-time customer of Forsythe's - in fact, we had purchased our wedding rings from Susie Rochow Wahl's grandfather. Matt graciously told me to bring the piece in to him and we'd see what was going on.

Matt determined that somehow the gold was tarnishing and he cleaned the necklace in his SPEED BRITE IONIC CLEANER. It came out looking brand new! Matt told me ionic cleaners were safe for all metals, pearls and most stones (not hematite). I had the answer to my cleaning problem and googled the cleaner to find an online source. It came within days and I use it frequently to keep the metal jewelry in the shop sparkling and looking its best. The cleaners are sold in several different sizes and there is even a small one for personal use. If you have a lot of silver jewelry, I heartily recommend it. Just one more trick of trade...I keep on learning new things about jewelry and that's what makes this job so much fun.