How to Wear Jewelry Responsibly

As a serious jewelry owner, there are steps that you should be taking to preserve the life and look of your favorite jewelry pieces. This includes doing things like taking off pieces of your jewelry when you are doing certain tasks. Learn when to take off your jewelry and you’ll keep it in good shape and extend the life of your pieces dramatically. 

Avoid Swimming Pools

Jewelry doesn’t do well in chlorinated water and that’s something that you want to avoid exposing your pieces to as much as possible. The chlorine in swimming pools can react with certain metals in jewelry leading to color changes over time and even structural damage over time. 

Slip Jewelry on After You Get Ready for the Day

Hair spray, perfume, lotion and other cosmetics are bad for jewelry. That’s why you should wait until you’ve applied all that stuff before you put on your accessories. By waiting until the end, you avoid exposing your jewelry to the harmful chemicals and keep it in better shape overall. This is a good habit to get into each time you get ready, even if you aren’t always using all those damaging products. 

Avoid Jewelry when Performing Chores at Home

Housework is hard on jewelry as well and something that you want to avoid doing when you’re dressed up with your favorite pieces. Try to avoid wearing rings, bracelets and other pieces of jewelry that are going to be around your hands while you do everyday cleaning tasks. Whether you’re washing dishes, digging in the garden, or just cleaning up your home, it’s best to do so without much jewelry on. 

Store it with Care

When you aren’t wearing your jewelry, you should take the time and put in the effort to store it all carefully. Invest in a good quality jewelry box that separates your pieces from one another, or invest in soft jewelry bags to store your pieces in. You want to keep the different items from rubbing together during storage, to keep your jewelry in good shape for as long as possible. This is especially true when storing soft and hard items together because items like diamonds can easily scratch up gold rings and other softer metals. 

Taking care of jewelry is an important part of ownership, and it’s the only way that you’ll preserve your investment over time. Just make sure that you keep these best-practices in mind each time that you use your jewelry and you’ll keep your collection in better shape over time and get much more use out of your jewelry. Speak with us here at Draper's Jewelry to learn the best care instructions needed for all of your jewelry pieces.

Understanding Obsidian Jewelry

While most people decide to purchase precious stones or gems for their jewelry pieces, few consider the beauty of obsidian. Obsidian actually isn’t’ a precious stone at all, and is a type of durable glass formed when lave cools very quickly. Obsidian can be found all over the world and it comes in a wide variety of colors, shapes, and looks. 

The Different Types of Obsidian

There is plain black obsidian that’s lustrous and beautiful as is, but there are other special varieties to look out for as well. If you’re looking for something a bit more interesting than plain black obsidian, consider sheen obsidian, rainbow obsidian or snowflake obsidian. Sheen obsidian looks like a bunch of little stars on top of a black backdrop thanks to a bunch of tiny pockets of air that create cool reflections. Rainbow obsidian shows off a range of beautiful colors along with the black, and snowflake obsidian has white crystals that look very similar to snowflakes. Each type is beautiful, but it’s up to you the type that you want. 

Caring for Obsidian

Unlike many other types of jewelry, obsidian is pretty delicate. It’s prone to scratching and can be shattered if you drop it on a hard surface. That’s why you must take good care of this precious glass to ensure that it lasts over time. Keep it securely fastened at all times and avoid wearing it when you’ll be doing something particularly active. Obsidian is probably not the right type of accessory to wear when you’re going out to go dancing all night. 

Wearing it with Pride

Obsidian is a more understated type of jewelry and is perfect when paired with bright and flashy outfits. Use the obsidian as an accent that won’t bring your look over the top. Instead, it will make it more interesting while keeping things low key. Obsidian comes in a range of colors, so keep your intended use in mind when purchasing it from a jeweler for the best results. 

Obsidian is a cool form of jewelry that few people make use of today. It comes with rings, necklaces, earrings and just about every other form that you would expect of jewelry. It’s generally rounded and very shiny making it a cool looking form of jewelry to wear for all sorts of occasions. Invest in Obsidian today and enjoy some of the nicest and most unique looking pieces of jewelry that you have in your collection. Speak with us here at Draper's Jewelry to find out the unique styles of jewelry we carry.