Clean tarnished sterling silver jewelry with just an aluminum pan, baking soda and boiling water. The website home-jewelry-business-success-tips.com gives detailed instructions as well as precautions.

We do not recommend this cleaning method for jewelry that has precious or semi-precious stones. Though after a little research we discovered that a lot of people (including silversmiths) have used this method for cleaning gemstone jewelry with no ill effect, we don't think it's worth the risk of damaging your stones. Also, be aware that this method is not good for antiqued (oxidized) silver, as cleaning will remove the antiqued finish on the silver along with the tarnish.

This video fom Prismera gives a demonstration of the simple jewelry cleaning technique. I've used it and it works brilliantly for me. Video is just below the jump! Read the rest of this entry »