Jewellery Care
HOW TO LOOK AFTER YOUR JEWELLERY.
The benefits of using resin are not only that I can showcase natures beauty – but that it’s extremely lightweight, fantastic for creating dramatic jewellery that is amazingly easy to wear!
Scratches
It is pretty resilient stuff, however, if you are wearing a resin piece day to day and it’s seeing a lot of action, then scratches may start to build up and cause the piece to look a bit scuffed. Try to avoid bumping your jewellery, I strongly advise you not to sleep with it on or wear it whilst exercising, etc
Polishing
If you do notice some scratching or cloudiness appear over time, sometimes a damp microfibre, chammy or silk cloth will polish your piece nicely or you can use plastic polish.
Heat & Water
This is very important, try to avoid extreme heat! Ultimately, resin is a type of plastic and has a relatively low melting point, so it’s best not to leave it out in direct sunlight for long periods of time as this may lead to the resin softening/clouding or degrading. Some resin does not react well to UV rays, the type of resin that I use is UV stable, however, it’s just best practice to keep it looking its best.
Resin is water resistant, not waterproof – so taking it off whilst showering, washing up, swimming, etc is advised. This point is especially important if the piece also contains metal (which all my pieces do) as exposure will cause tarnishing (blackening/discolouration of the metal) to happen more quickly.
Chemicals
Watch out for particularly aggressive ones – acetone (nail varnish remover) is especially harmful to resin. It’s best also to avoid it coming into too much contact with hair spray, perfume (if alcohol based), cleaning solutions, anti-bac products…all these things can potentially cause the resin to become scaly, yellow, or break down.
Oils from your skin can also eventually start to ruin the surface of resin. It takes a long time to build up, but it can be removed by using mild dish soap. Dish soap is made to cut through grease, so applied with some warm water it can remove oils. It’s best to do this before storing your jewellery, to keep it looking new.
Tarnish
All my pieces are combined with various other metals, brass and sterling silver. Tarnishing is a process that happens naturally to metal over time, causing it to become duller and eventually blacken. It’s caused by exposure to water, oxygen and oils, but is easy enough to remove if you know how! Ideally, you want to slow down how quickly your piece tarnishes in the first place though, so I recommend –
Storing your jewellery in a sealed bag or box in a dry, dark, cool place. If it’s air-tight this is ideal.
Removing jewellery when showering, swimming, sleeping, etc. Do not store it in the bathroom as it’s always damp!
Removing whilst applying lotions, perfume, hairspray, etc.
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CYANOTYPE CARE
HOW TO LOOK AFTER YOUR ORIGINAL CYANOTYPE PRINTS
Original cyanotype prints are vibrant and colourful, to keep them perfect I always recommned a little care. It is best to display the prints out of direct, exposure to sunlight, cyanotype prints are made using uv light so they can still react or fade, if they do fade, place them in a dark room and they may darken again.
Please note some old fashioned strip lights still emit a little Uv light, these are rarely in houses nowadays but may be in public building and shops.