Stone jewelry

How to Clean Rhinestone Jewelry
( By Thomas Wong )

If you are shopping for beautiful stone jewelry on a budget, perhaps rhinestone jewelry would fit your requirements. Rhinestone is a sparkling natural stone which was first found in areas surrounding the Rhine River. Because of its close resemblance to the diamond, it is sometimes refer as imitation diamond. It is one of the highest ranges of crystal stones available in the market today.

Rhinestone is one of the favorite crystal stones used in costume jewelry and fashion accessory. Known for its beauty and quality, it is the perfect stones when you are on a shopping budget. In fact today, you can see many modern women wearing rhinestone jewelries or accessories. Stone makers take full advantage of its glittering quality and transform the stone into an elegant and authentic masterpiece of jewelries and fashion accessories.

You can find many varieties of rhinestone jewelries as you walk into a jewelry stones shop. If you are fascinated by the sparkling and beauty of the rhinestone jewelries, it is just a normal reaction.

In order to optimize the beautiful sparkling effect, the rhinestone is glued to a thin shinny metal foil. Besides adding glittering flashes to the stone like a mirror, the metal foil provides support to the stone when embedding to a base such as a ring or a bracelet. Usually the base is made from non-precious metals such as brass, bronze or copper and coated in gold or silver paint.

The magnificent combination shinning metal foil and coated metal base enhances the sparkling beauty of the rhinestone. The stone may lose its glittering effect due to oxidation after expose to sunlight, air and pollution for a period of times. But a good thing to know is, the cleaning process is simple and not expensive. You can do the cleaning yourself at home.

Many people just use soap and water and brush the stone with a toothbrush to clean it by subjecting it to running water. That way, you may risk getting the metal foil wet which will turn the color to black. One trick is to avoid subjecting the metal foil to water for a long time. If you notice that the foil get wet in process of cleaning the stone, just shake off the excess water. You may have to do this action several times throughout the cleaning process.

After you have completed the cleaning process, wipe the rhinestone dry with a clean dry cloth. You can also use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process.

If you find that the stone has turned yellowish at the bottom, it is due to the oxidation of the glue holding the stone and the metal foil. Since the problem is underneath the stone, it may not be possible for you to clean it without remove the stone. To solve this problem, you may have to send the rhinestone jewelry to the expert to clean it.