How I Cleaned My Silver Jewelry

This isn't a craft, but I think it is pretty crafty. See what I did there?  And totally worth sharing.
I know this is nothing new, but it is new to me. 
My silver chain and adorable Lily of the Valley earrings looked like this.

Before

I know, horrible, right?

After looking online for instructions and reading many similar sets of instructions (No two alike, either.  That is why I am not linking to any one in particular)  I took a deep breath and jumped in.  Trying it my way.

I started with a glass dish. I placed it in the sink just in case I spilled the water. 

I lined it with tinfoil.

Then I poured about an inch of boiling water in.  Without spilling anything!  You only need enough to cover the objects you are cleaning.

Then I sprinkled a bunch of baking soda in the dish.

I clean my sink with baking soda, so yes, that actually is  my container.  It lives under the sink.  There is another one by the bathroom too. I have a different container in the cupboard for my baking needs.


Then I added some salt.  Roughly the same amount as the baking soda.  But, having said that, I didn't measure any of it, I just eyeballed everything.

Then I placed my icky silver on the foil and set a timer for five minutes.  I forget where I read that, but I read somewhere that you should leave the silver in for "up to" five minutes.

Would you look at that!!!!  It looks so much better!  But still not great.  I got a fresh piece of foil and repeated the process on my chain.  The earrings came clean the first try.

After I took them out of the solution, I rinsed them off and buffed them up with a soft cloth.
Lily of the Valley is my favourite flower.  When I saw these earrings at a craft shop I had  to have them, luckily for me, Hubby agreed!  I am so happy that they came clean.

Awe. Some.

And my chain after the second go looks fantastic as well.  I made the "A" for Angela (me!!), but it could stand for Awesome, or Amazing after the way that the silver cleaned up.

After

As for the foil.  There was a bit of a funky smell when I dumped the water out.  And just look at the ring of yuck  that was left behind!!  This was after the chain was done a second time.  

There you have it.  If you have ever wondered if you really can  clean silver this way, now you know!

Thanks for looking!

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