How to Look After Ruby Jewellery

Looking After Ruby Jewellery

Knowing how to look after ruby jewellery is an essential if you’re fortunate enough to own some of the beautiful gemstones. They are very hard-wearing gemstones, and so maintaining them is a simpler problem than other precious stones such as pearls or opals. To ensure your ruby ringspendants, and bracelets are at their peak, follow these easy steps.

Cleaning

It’s important to keep your jewellery well-cleaned so that your gemstones sparkle at their best. For stones like rubies, the best thing you can do in terms of cleaning is: fill a cup with warm water, add some washing-up liquid, and get a children’s toothbrush. Get your toothbrush nice and soapy, and then gently start scrubbing at your jewellery. You’ll want to go in a single direction, wiping over the same areas two or three times before moving on to the next area.

A toothbrush is the perfect tool because its bristles can get into all the nooks and crannies of your jewellery. Areas like the settings of a ring are difficult to reach, so have care in how you go about applying the brush to them. Something important to keep in mind is the other gemstones present in your jewellery. For example, if you have a ruby and pearl piece, you have to be very careful when cleaning. Don’t get too many suds on your toothbrush and keep your brushing motion exclusively to the ruby/ies.

Once you’re satisfied with the cleaning job – it shouldn’t take more than one or two minutes – get some paper towel and gently pat your jewellery dry. After this, you need a soft cloth. Nothing with hooks or thread that can get stuck on the claws or finer details of your jewellery. Soft cotton cloths are purchasable online, as well as ones crafted especially for cleaning jewellery.

Cleaning Ruby Jewellery

Using moderate pressure and a circular motion, buff your ruby jewellery all over to attain a pristine shine. You should clean your ruby jewellery in this fashion once or twice a year, depending on how often you wear it.

Checking

Whether you have a jeweller’s loupe or not, it’s important to check over your luxury jewellery. Consider purchasing a loupe of your own if you have a lot of high-end jewellery. If not, perhaps take your jewellery to a jeweller’s, or the shop where it was purchased, if possible. The settings and claws of ruby jewellery need to be checked roughly once every six months. If you wear your ruby jewellery regularly, you might want to check them more frequently yourself.

Ruby Ring with Diamonds

It’s important to check for any damage that may have been caused in the wearing of your jewellery. Rubies are very hard-wearing stones, and scratching or damaging them is difficult. However, it is still entirely possible that wear and tear can affect your gemstones. Another important reason to check over your jewellery is for the security of the stones. Over time and lots of wearing, the claws and settings that hold your rubies in place can get caught on clothing and other such things. This can cause them to be pulled or twisted out of shape, or sometimes even broken off entirely. The loosening caused by this can lead to gemstones falling out and going missing if not seen to urgently.

Ruby Jewellery

If you notice any movement of the settings and claws in your jewellery, or if you notice any movement or looseness among your gemstones themselves, then you must act. First, remove the jewellery if you are wearing it, and keep it contained within a jewellery bag. This ensures that if any of your stones fall out then they will be contained with the rest of the piece.

At your earliest convenience, you must take your ruby jewellery to a professional jeweller’s and get it repaired. Sometimes, these repairs can be costly, but it’s worth it for the peace of mind of knowing that your jewellery is strong.

Storing

A jewellery box is an important part of owning jewellery. It doesn’t have to be a lavish expenditure in and of itself – although that’s certainly nice. Having separate sections in your jewellery box also ensure that softer stones are less likely to be scratched against hard stones. If you have a significant amount of ruby jewellery, you should store it separately from your other jewellery in order to prevent damage. Whether that means using a separate section of an existing jewellery storage mechanism, or a different box entirely is dependant on how much jewellery you are fortunate enough to own.

If your jewellery contains rubies and pearls together, then make sure you have a soft bag for storage. Whether it’s cotton or silk is up to you, but it needs to be very soft. This is to protect the pearls from receiving any scratches or staining from interaction with other stones.

Rubies themselves are not likely to be damaged by other gemstones in your jewellery box. If you own diamond jewellery, however, you need to keep them separate from one another. The hardness of diamonds is certain to scratch or otherwise damage ruby jewellery.

Ruby Brooch

Wearing

As we’ve discussed, rubies are strong stones, and they can withstand a fair bit of wear and tear. Diamonds are often referred to as the strongest material in the known world – though there are a few materials that are stronger. Rubies cannot be worn with the frequency that diamonds can. Ruby engagement rings, for example, can be worn most of the time. But there should still be days when the ruby engagement ring is left in a safe place, such as days featuring intense physical exercise, manual labour, or big crowds such as concerts.

Ruby rings are the ones to look out for the most, with your hands getting more interaction with potentially damaging materials than most of the rest of your body. Ruby bracelets are also one to wear less than every day, as again your wrists are easy to get caught and can lead to the damage of your jewellery.

Ruby necklaces and earrings are less risky to wear often, but should still be checked over regularly as a preventative measure.

How to Look After Ruby Jewellery

Rubies are stunning gemstones, and wearing them is always a pleasure. Ensure you know how to look after ruby jewellery, it deserves to be treated right. If you’re looking to learn more about ruby jewellery, find out what colour ruby is the most valuable, as well as whether or not ruby engagement rings are a popular choice.

The author’s views are entirely their own and may not always reflect the views of AC Silver.

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