Agha Designs Custom Jewelry

Jewelry No-Nos

This section of our website is designed to give you the longest term pleasure from your precious pieces of jewelry. The intent is to educate, and ensure that you spend your money on NEW pieces of jewelry (we like that) rather than have us repair pieces that have inadvertently been hurt. If you have specific questions on your particular piece of jewelry contact us.

1. Don’t wear your jewelry when you do the dishes. Ammonia, chlorine, and other chemicals in cleaning agents can be very hard on some precious metals and gemstones. White gold, as an example is particularly susceptible to chlorine which causes microscopic fractures in the matrix – often causing the loss of a precious stone. For this reason, we at Agha Designs, always mount stones that are above a certain dollar value, or have significant sentimental value in platinum heads. Platinum does not suffer from the type of embrittlement discussed earlier.

2. DO NOT wear your jewelry when you do ANY kind of work with machines or yard work. We do not care to count the number of times that we have had to repair jewelry especially rings or necklaces that were either cut off the customer’s finger after an accident, or had been ripped off their neck by a wayward piece of machinery or tool. This type of accident is rough on the jewelry (usually repairable), and sadly - often on the customer (often NOT repairable).

3. Do not put the following stones into an ultrasonic cleaner: aquamarine, emerald, opal, pearl, or tanzanite. Note, not ALL delicate stones are listed here, just the more popular ones. If you are not sure of a particular stone, contact us.

4. Cleaning your jewelry with warm water and mild soap, and an old soft toothbrush is OK. You do not need a "special" solution to clean your jewelry, however several excellent jewelry cleaners ARE available on the market. If you wish to purchase one, click here.

5. Another preferred way to clean delicate and valuable jewelry is an "Ionic Cleaner." To learn more about Ionic Cleaners, or to purchase one, click here