I often get people asking about how to care for their super cool black jewelry and thought you might be wondering that too.
No, please do not polish it. The black is created by speeding up the natural oxidation process with sulfur . (For info about oxidation check out in previous Blog Posts)
You might be thinking, “But I just read that wearing jewelry is a form of polishing. Are you saying I can’t wear it?” Nope, I am not saying that. Please wear it. Jewelry is meant to be worn.
But, yes, the black might be worn off of it over time.
The next step, once the black has been worn off, is to re-blacken it. “What! How do I do that?” This is where the egg comes in. An easy, at home, way to do this is to boil an egg. While the egg is still hot put it in a ziplock back with your jewelry. They can be on either side of the bag so you don’t have to pick egg out of your favorite ring. And crush the egg. Because eggs are so high in sulfur it will actually turn your silver back to black. Another suggestion I would make about this is to dip your jewelry in hot water before you put it in the bag. The heat really makes a difference. Cold jewelry with cold boiled eggs will take significantly longer.
I had heard about this for years before I tried it and when I did I was pleased with the result. But it did not get that "scary can’t see in front of you, are there monsters under my bed" type of dark. For that I will not leave my concentrated sulfur solution anytime soon. Also because of that I have decided to offer it in small personal size options here.
If you do end up purchasing concentrated sulfur I would suggest boiling some water (I use an electric tea kettle and make myself some tea at the same time), take a small glass container, like a Pyrex, and put the hot water and jewelry in there. Then put JUST A DROP of the sulfur into the hot water. You will see it turn before your eyes. The hotter the water the faster and more effective it will be.
From there you can polish off as much as you want. I like to use a high grit sand paper sometimes but please feel free to contact me
Of course, please be careful.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Enjoy,
Ali