“A piece of jewelry is often a piece of art. But it only becomes valuable when emotions are added to it.”
Not only can second hand clothes be altered, but jewelry can be restored as well. Years ago when my husband and I first started dating, he went away on a missions trip for a week. I was nervous about it, so he gave me half a Mizpah Coin necklace and he kept the other half. It stated, “The Lord watch between me and Thee while we are apart one from another” (Genesis 31:49). I greatly appreciated the sweet gesture, but what I didn’t realize was that he assumed I would then wear it everyday. His face the first time I didn’t wear it caught me off guard and I quickly caught on. After that, I began to wear it all the time. This necklace has now become one of my most precious possessions and it was the only piece of jewelry I wore on my wedding day apart from my rings. Needless to say, it has been through some wear and tear.
My necklace has seen many different chains, all bought at the Salvation Army. I work at a daycare every summer, so it often gets pulled off by curious little hands. Sometimes I have to throw the chains away if I find out that they are not pure silver. (P.S. real gold and silver are not magnetic. My husband always takes a small magnet to garage sales to test the jewelry. It should also have a marking on it if it is real, more than likely it will say .95 for 95% real gold or silver). If I buy one that is made of iron or nickel, it will rust after a time.
With my most recent chain, I made sure that it was real, but it was still very dark and dingy. I was determined to clean it though, despite having never done it before. I got home and looked it up online and was discouraged when my cleaning process did not work the first time. However, I kept at it and this is what I came up with:
- Boil a pot of water
- Drop your jewelry in the pot
- Put a healthy coating of baking soda in
- Keep checking until jewelry is clean (usually 30 seconds – 3 minutes)
And that’s it! Never fear if a valuable piece of jewelry appears to be going bad, simply check for authenticity and get cleaning!
Second Chances 