How to Care for Handmade Gemstone, Pearl and Leather Jewelry

Handmade jewelry is not fragile, but it is made of natural materials, and natural materials have opinions. Nearly everything that shortens a piece’s life is avoidable, and once you know it, it takes no effort at all. This is everything I would tell you if you bought a piece from me in person.

The one rule that covers most of it

Jewelry goes on last and comes off first.

Perfume, hairspray, lotion, sunscreen and hair product are the most common cause of damage I see, and they are all applied within the same ten minutes as getting dressed. Let everything dry properly, then put the jewelry on. Take it off before you wash, swim, exercise or sleep. If you do only this and nothing else on the page, you will have avoided most of the trouble.

Pearls need the most care

Pearls are not minerals. They are organic, built from layers of nacre, and they are soft — roughly 2.5 to 4.5 on the Mohs scale, among the softest things anyone wears. They are also vulnerable to acid, and that includes perfume, hairspray and ordinary perspiration.

• Wipe them with a soft, slightly damp cloth after wearing, and let them dry before storing
• Never use an ultrasonic cleaner, steam, or anything with ammonia, bleach or vinegar in it
• Store them somewhere dry and away from heat
• Keep them away from harder stones, which scratch them very easily
• On strung pieces, check the thread from time to time

Done consistently, this is the difference between pearls that hold their luster for decades and pearls that go dull in a few years. It matters most on a piece like the Brown Baroque Pearl Necklace, where there are 106 individual pearls rubbing gently against one another all day. There is more about pearls themselves in my guide to the types of pearls.

Gemstones, sorted by hardness

Not every stone wants the same treatment, and hardness is what decides it. Roughly:

• Harder stones — aquamarine, citrine, garnet, agate, quartz. These tolerate warm water, mild soap and a soft brush. Pieces like the Natural Aquamarine Bracelets or the Red Carnelian Agate Gemstone Bracelet are forgiving.
• Softer or layered stones — moonstone, labradorite, apatite, fluorite. A soft dry cloth and very little else. The Aqua Mint Fluorite Gemstone Bracelet and the Layered Moonstone Necklace both fall here.
• Porous stones — turquoise above all. Never soak these. They absorb liquid and oils and will change color permanently, as I explain in the turquoise guide.

When in doubt, use a dry cloth. It is never the wrong answer, and it has never damaged anything.

Leather

Leather’s enemies are water and heat, in that order.

• Do not wear leather in the shower, the pool or the sea
• If it does get wet, let it dry naturally and away from direct heat — a radiator or a hairdryer will leave it stiff and brittle, and that is not reversible
• Store it flat or loosely coiled rather than tightly bent, so it does not take a crease
• Keep it out of prolonged direct sunlight, which fades the color

Treated properly, good leather softens and improves with wear. Pieces like the Sleek Modern Leather Bracelet and the Turquoise Gemstone and Leather Stack genuinely look better after a year than they did on day one, provided they have been kept dry.

Clasps, findings and the parts nobody checks

The stones usually outlive the hardware, so it is worth a glance now and then at the parts that do the actual work.

Gold-plated and gold-filled findings last longest when kept dry and away from chemicals — the same rules as everything else. Magnetic clasps are wonderfully convenient, especially if you struggle with small fastenings, but they are worth checking periodically to make sure they are still holding firmly, particularly on a heavier necklace. A lobster clasp should close with a definite click; if it has gone vague or loose, bring it to me before you lose the piece rather than after.

Storing it all

The single best thing you can do is store pieces separately. Most scratching does not happen out in the world — it happens in a jewelry box overnight, when a harder stone is left resting against a softer one. Soft pouches work, a divided box works, even individual small bags work.

Keep everything dry and out of direct sun. If you are storing pearls or turquoise for a long stretch, avoid sealed plastic, which can trap moisture against them. And if you layer necklaces regularly, be aware that the pieces are rubbing together all day — see how to layer necklaces for which combinations are kinder to each other.

If something does go wrong

Because every piece is made here by hand, repairs are usually straightforward in a way that mass-produced jewelry often is not. A failed clasp, a stretched elastic, a strand that needs restringing — these are all fixable, and I would far rather fix a piece than have it sit unworn in a drawer.

So if something breaks, please get in touch and tell me what happened. Even if a piece is years old. It was made one at a time, and it can be put right the same way.