I thought I’d share one of my favorite new discoveries with y’all. It’s an organic method of polishing silver. I found it in with a bunch of kids’ science experiments, believe it or not. It’s really cool to watch, so if you have kids, bring them on in for this one!
Organic Silver Polish
1 tsp baking soda (called bicarbonate of soda in the UK)
1 tsp salt
boiling water
glass or ceramic container
aluminum foil
Line a glass or ceramic container with aluminum foil, and put in a teaspoon each of baking soda and salt (you don’t need to be hugely accurate with the amounts here). Fill it up with boiling water. Now drop in your silver pieces, making sure they are touching both the foil and each other. Voila! Before you know it they will be bright and shiny again - you can pretty much watch the tarnish dissolve!
Once they’re clean, fish them out carefully (remember that was boiling water), rinse them, and leave them out to dry.
Of course, you definitely do not want to do this to any jewelry with stones or beads in it, since they really don’t mix well with water. I’d also skip any jewelry that has been intentionally blackened (unless you want to get rid of the black bits). You’ll be better to polish up these pieces with a polishing cloth, which you should be able to pick up at your local jewelry store.
If you’re a silversmith, you may also want to check out my organic jewelry pickle and my organic method for blackening silver.