Women who love costume jewelry know that one of its greatest advantages is the affordability that allows us to experiment with a variety of styles, colors and themes. However, as with any new purchase, those beautiful new necklaces, bracelets, earrings and so on that you were so excited about eventually get old and wind up stuffed in the back of a drawer or the bottom of a jewelry box. Sometimes we just get bored with them and want to try something new.
In any case there are measures we can take to revive those old outdated costume jewelry pieces. We can find new unconventional uses for those items that are still in fairly good condition or simply unload them (not trash them) to make room for new costume jewelry.
For those costume jewelry pieces that are a little worn or outdated we can rejuvenate them by first giving them a thorough cleaning, polishing and/or re-plating. For general plating instructions and supplies check out Shorinternational.com. Click on the contents and search page tab and then click on plating gateway. There are several plating options ranging from simple and inexpensive (e.g. dipping solutions which have been used with varying results from good to poor) to more advanced techniques involving heat or electricity. If you are uncomfortable with any of these methods, there are companies that specialize in jewelry plating. Continue Reading »
