By
Administrator on May 27th, 2006
Posted in Organic Gardening | No Comments »
First of all, I must apologize to anyone who checks for new material on this blog. I’ve been too busy to get here before now this week. Spring is an extra busy time for me as I’m trying to keep up with my store, keep up my inventory of hand-crafted jewelry, candles, and gift baskets, and, in addition, get all the seedlings for my organic vegetable garden planted and maintained.
Our weather has been exceptionally wet around here for quite a while and it’s had an effect on my garden, slowing everything down and making me wonder if the seeds I’d planted were ever going to come up! This weekend is the traditional time for putting out tender plants since we rarely ever have any frost from this point until late Fall. My little greenhouse is full of tomato, pepper, eggplant, celery (first time I’ve tried planting this), herbs, and a few flower plants. At least I hope that’s the case since I forgot to open the door a bit this morning and it may well have gotten awfully hot in there today. I’m planning on getting everything into the ground over the next two days.
Our soil is not the best, being mostly clay and the inevitable load of rocks; however, I’ve been mulching and amending it for a few years now and can see the difference already. Most of the organic fertilizers and amendments I’ve seen have been a bit too expensive for me to buy in the quantities that I really need, so this year I’m trying something new. I bought a 50 lb. bag of alfalfa pellets for only ten dollars and change from a garden supply/feed store and have brewed up a big trash can full of “alfalfa tea”. I’ve heard great things about how plants thrive when watered with it and will have to report later on how this experiment turns out. Here’s an organic gardening tip for anyone who’s been trying to compost large numbers of fallen leaves. If, like me, you have tons of leaves but no ready source of manure to add to it, you may have found that it is extremely difficult to get your compost heap to heat up enough to break the materials down quickly. I received one of those expensive double-barreled composters as a gift and hoped that that would do the trick. Nope. Even when I added the so-called compost “starters” those stubborn leaves would just kind of sit there. Last week I added some yarrow leaves as I’d read somewhere that they were supposed to help in the composting process and saw no difference after a couple of days. I then threw in a gallon or so of the alfalfa pellets and when I checked the composter yesterday I actually felt a bit of warmth in there! I’ll post more on this later and hope to finally be able to report success.
In the meantime, if you enjoy gardening of any type and haven’t already found the “Dave’s Garden” site, you’ve been missing one of the best resources on the web for information on plants and gardening. So, here’s the link:Dave’s Garden Enjoy!
By
Administrator on May 19th, 2006
Posted in jewelry care | No Comments »
There seems to be some general confusion between gold-filled and gold plated jewelry. They are not the same things! In order to be classified as “gold-filled” 20% of the total weight of the metal must be karat gold whereas a plated item has an extremely thin film of gold covering the other metal. In the US, either 12 or 14 k gold is generally used. Plating can wear off very quickly because it’s so thin to begin with, and for that reason I generally avoid it. On the other hand, a gold-filled piece, properly cared for can last a very long time. I have a gold-filled chain which was given to me over thirty years ago and it still looks good!
You can help to keep your gold-filled jewelry looking good by following a few simple rules. Always make sure that perfume, hairspray, deodorants, etc. are dry before putting on your jewelry so that they don’t react with the metal on contact. Take your jewelry off before diving into the swimming pool or the ocean! All those mineral salts and chlorine will take their toll otherwise.
If your jewelry darkens over time a light buffing with a jeweler’s rouge cloth will usually brighten it right up. You may also get good results with other metal polishes, but please remember that you want to use the gentlest means possible as you certainly don’t want to wear away the layer of gold and expose the base metal (usually brass) underneath.
Gold-filled usually costs just a bit more than sterling silver, so if you like the look of gold but the budget won’t stretch far enough for a solid gold piece, consider gold-filled!
By
Administrator on May 12th, 2006
Posted in jewelry care | 4 Comments »
In a previous article I gave you some tips on how to prevent your silver jewelry from tarnishing and how to remove tarnish once it had occurred. This time I’d like to talk about a special case of tarnish removal. If you own any multi-strand “liquid silver” jewelry you may find the following helpful. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name “liquid silver” it is generally used to refer to jewelry made of fine tubular beads of silver strung on silk, cotton, or a man-made fiber. It got it’s name from the fact that the many tiny beads make the jewelry seem to flow like a liquid. Here’s a picture of a necklace made of extra fine “liquid silver”.
Since this jewelry is strung on fiber, it is definitely not a good idea to immerse it in any sort of liquid cleaner. Also, since this type of jewelry generally has many strands and tends to be fairly delicate, the jewelry polishing cloth would be difficult to use except on the clasp and the end caps. The best solution I’ve found is to take a soft cloth in one hand and pour some ordinary household baking soda into it. Now GENTLY draw the jewelry through while applying slight pressure with the soda filled cloth. Make as many passes as necessary to thoroughly clean your jewelry, then shake the jewelry to dislodge any baking soda that’s still on it.
By
Administrator on May 4th, 2006
Posted in jewelry care | No Comments »
The last article I posted gave you a few tips on how to keep your silver jewelry from tarnishing. Now I’d like to give you some advice on how to remove it once it has occured.
If your jewelry is made completely of sterling silver (in other words, there are no stones or other materials included in the piece) and it is not strung on silk or any other fiber, you may wish to use one of the liquid tarnish removers. It’s best to use this method sparingly though as prolonged use may result in pitting of the metal surface and a tendency to tarnish faster than ever. Another method that can be used on the same type of jewelry is the following: Choose a pan (preferably pyrex) or dish large enough to completely immerse the jewelry. Line the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil. Set your jewelry on the foil, making sure that it touches the foil as much as possible (the more surface to surface contact, the better). Make a solution of boiling water and baking soda in a ratio of 1 cup of soda to 1 gallon of water. Be careful adding the baking soda to the water as it will tend to foam and may overflow your container. Pour this mixture over your jewelry, completely covering it. If the silver is very badly tarnished you may need to reheat the water/baking soda mixture and repeat the process. It is best to replace the aluminum foil each time as well. If you use either this process or the liquid tarnish remover, please understand that you will probably lose most or all of the oxidation in recessed areas which may have been put there on purpose to make the design stand out.
If your jewelry contains any organic materials such as pearls, coral, abalone and other shell, amber, ivory, bone, or wood, it is a very bad idea to try either of the methods listed above! This is also true of jewelry containing porous stones such as turquoise or malachite. You will likely ruin your jewelry. Even jewelry pieces made entirely of silver, but strung on silk or like materials should not be subjected to a dunking. The liquid will affect the fiber, usually not for the better (some cords will shrink, for instance). Since some of the solution will remain in the string even after a thorough rinsing and people with sensitive skin may develop irritation from the chemicals that are left behind.
I have found that the best method (although not necessarily the easiest) of removing tarnish from silver jewelry is the use of a jewelry polishing cloth. This method does require a little bit of elbow grease and will take some time, but it has the advantage of being safe for just about all types of jewelry and will not remove the oxidation in recessed areas unless you purposely work the cloth into those areas.