hi, please can somebody give me some advice:

1. If silver is silver, then sterling silver is just plated silver, right?
2. If one wears silver jewelery (say necklace) would we have to remove it everyday before taking a shower?
3. Is anyone wearing silver jewelery without taking it off everyday?

someone gave me a very nice silver necklace, I'm finding it a hassle to put on/open the clasp.
I also want to keep it looking new for as long as possible.

advice much appreciated
thanks
love satchi

No, as far as I know sterling silver is an alloy of nearly all silver with a bit of something else (I think it is copper) to make it hard enough to be useable; it is too soft otherwise.

Silver plate is something else.

Not sure about how to look after it but someone gave me some antique sterling silver teaspoons as a wedding present and they were wrapped in dark blus tissue paper which i was advvised to keep them in.

Maybe a sciency person can be more helpful (or look in one of those "How to clean everything" books in the library

I wear an antique diamond and silver ring every day, hardly ever take it off and it is fine, doesn't really get dirty either. So I'm sure you'll be able to wear your necklace in the shower without it changing colour or anything like that. There are lots of jewellary cleaning solutions that you can buy from jewellers that are quick and easy to use, that's what I do occasionally to keep it sparkling!

You should be able to wear silver all the time - unless it has nickel in the mix and then it might react to stuff. The only thing I've been told to be careful with silver around is a coal fire - we have quite a few in my house!

To clean it, you can use a silver cloth - this is just a special cloth that you can get from any jewellers. Or there is a tin foil method - you put tin foil in the sink with a load of other stuff and the black stuff that builds up on the silver all comes off http://www.repair-home.com/Cleaning_Silver.html

I wear a silver chain and pendant everyday and don't take it off in the shower. It is still fairly bright but has a little bit of tarnish around the edges but not so you would really notice and not enough for me to think it needs cleaning yet.

hi JepsonClough, Natassia, Sneaks, Pamw
thanks for your tips :-) and for the cleaning solution Sneaks!
I will wear my necklace then!!!! :-)

I am also tempted to buy Tibetan silver jewelery from ebay!!!!! Has anyone got tibetan silver?

There's also something else I heard: which is NOT to combine silver and gold jewelery together because silver eats up the gold.
is this true?

love satchi

Haven't heard about silver eating gold but I know that if you have rings in gold on the same finger they need to be the same carrat as one will rub the other away (so I got an 18ct gold wedding ring to macth my engagement ring whereas my husband got a (cheaper) 9ct one)

Hi Satchi,

Tibetan silver is not actually real silver. Is is a bit like pewter (mostly made of tin, nickel etc I think) and only has a very small amount of actual silver in it. It tends to be slightly darker in colour than real silver and I've heard that it tarnishes much quicker. It's much cheaper to buy than real silver though, and looks similar enough that it will still look pretty! x