Keep the Sparkle in Your Diamond

Diamonds are extremely hard and durable. Take care of your diamond by avoiding breaks and scratches and keep it clean. With good care, your diamond will have the same sparkle and beauty in ten, a hundred or a thousand years. Diamonds do not fade, tarnish or wear out like most materials. The secret to keeping a diamond's sparkle is keeping it clean.

Diamonds are the hardest natural material. Only a diamond can scratch a diamond. Use great caution when wearing multiple diamond rings on the same finger. If the diamonds of one ring touch diamonds in another ring, both diamonds will likely end up scratched in a relatively short time. If you have a diamond wedding band next to your diamond engagement ring, be sure their design allows them to fit together so the diamonds do not touch.

The next most dangerous place for diamonds scratching each other is in the jewelry box. Do not throw your diamond rings, diamond earrings, and diamond bracelet together. Since diamonds will scratch diamonds, think of what they can do to other gemstones and precious metals. Keep your diamond jewelry in separate compartments or isolated by soft cloth to keep them from rubbing each other.

While diamonds are very durable, they can break or chip. You would not let someone hit your diamond with a steel hammer but your diamond ring faces the same type of danger every day. File cabinets, metal seat belt buckles, and car doors are just a few of the metal surfaces that can hit a diamond in the course of a normal day. Avoid sharp impacts with hard surfaces and you will avoid chips and cracks in your diamond.

Diamonds are natural grease attractors. Some diamond mines separate diamonds from the broken rocks by running the material over a conveyor belt covered with a layer of grease. Diamonds stick to the grease and the rocks slide off. At the end of the shift, they remove the grease and melt it away, leaving the diamonds.

Remember diamond's attraction to grease when you touch a diamond with your finger. The oil from your fingertips will coat the diamond and reduce the sparkle. The same is true when your diamond ring touches the oil in your hair. Hand creams, lotions, hair spray, soap, and grease from food will create a film on your diamond that hides its beauty. When you put your hands in dishwater, the dirt and grease in the water will adhere to the diamond. Dust and powders also cling to diamonds.

Fortunately, diamonds are easy to clean. Put your diamond jewelry in a warm solution of mild liquid detergent and water. You can also use the containers of "Jewelry Cleaner" available at jewelry and department stores. These typically have a small basket the ring can sit in and a small, soft brush to clean the hard to reach places around the diamond. Swish the ring around in the solution, rinse it with warm water, and dry the ring with a lint-free cloth. While chemicals will probably not hurt your diamond, harsh chemicals like chlorine or bleach can weaken and discolor the metal in the jewelry. Keep in mind that swimming pools and hot tubs usually have high levels of chlorine and are not a safe place for jewelry.

There are many types of ultrasonic cleaners available to the public today. The piece of jewelry sits in a basket of water and detergent. The ultrasonic cleaner produces high-frequency turbulence that is an excellent way to clean the hard to get at part of jewelry. Not all gemstones are as durable as diamonds. Never put soft materials like emeralds, opals and pearls in an ultrasonic cleaner.

With a little common sense and regular cleaning, your diamonds will keep their sparkle and beauty for years of enjoyment.

Handmade Jewelry Information Resource

One of the things that make handmade jewelry so special is not only that it is crafted personally by its maker's own patient hands, but also that it takes hours of careful, deliberate concentration to construct.

Every type of handmade jewelry is unique from any other jewelry piece in the world. No two pieces of handmade jewelry are ever exactly alike--making your own personal handmade keepsake a one-of-a-kind original treasure. Since each piece of handmade jewelry is individually crafted, it is practically impossible replicate its style. Handmade jewelry is particularly fashionable because of its natural beauty. Its decorative stones, beads and metals oftentimes sport tiny imperfections, which add quality and depth to each individual piece and serve as a kind of 'seal of authenticity' which proves that it was not merely part-and-parcel of a mass manufacturing chain.

Handmade jewelry has been prized for centuries upon centuries. The old civilizations of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt were extremely advanced in metalworking. Their perfected techniques were passed on throughout time to the Byzantinian, Greek, Oriental and cultures. Long before there were machines fashioned to design and produce large quantities of jewelry, the artisan peoples of ancient cultures were busy hand-working gold into thin pliable sheets from which adornments could be easily sculpted. Gold is, in its purest form, flexible and soft. It is liable to bending and twisting as well, which is helpful in the hand making of fanciful gold broaches and embroidered medallions.

Embossed decoration in handmade jewelry is made by first heating the gold or other jewelry metal, and then gently hammering a pattern into the back surface of the metal. The resulting embroidery is fashionably unique. It has a one-of-a-kind motif that can never be replicated in the same style again. This innate quality of rarity and distinctivness is what sets handmade jewelry apart from all other types of jewelry on the market.

Handmade jewelry is not only crafted from common jewelry metals. Oftentimes, handmade pieces include a mix of ceramic, plaster, or wooden beads; iron, copper, and soft-metal wires; ribbons or coils; and precious gems. It is this eclectic look of eccentric styles that appeals to almost every taste--even those of the world's pickiest and most popular fashionistas.

Gifts for Neighbors Who are Moving Away

Your kids have played together. Both husbands coordinated and erected that wooden fence between your properties and installed a gate between the two yards. This neighbor has been your dearest friend. You have shared raising your children, she gave that great flowering bush out front, and you even shared your family recipes with her. Now they are moving. It is like a part of your family is moving across the country.

You have both said you will stay in touch with each other. You'll write and she'll write. There will be the occasional phone calls back and forth. You want to give her a gift that will have some special meaning of your life together or will continue the closeness you have. Your neighbor also has her hands busy with packing. You want to give her something that will help. So, what do you do you give to your dearest neighbor?

I have a few suggestions. Maybe some of these will be just right.

-If you are better at talking than writing, then stay in touch with phone calls. Purchase a long distance calling card to keep in touch. Find a card with a picture of the plant she gave you, or two houses side by side, or other symbol of your friendship.

-Your neighbor will need to notify everyone of her address change. Pick up a Mail address change packet at the post office and fill out her old and new addresses for her.

-Get a new address book and have all the neighbors add their info it.

-Go through your old photos and put together a picture book of all the times you've shared together.

-As a remembrance of your long lasting friendship, get a plant or small tree for your neighbor to plant in her new yard.

-Find or write a poem of your friendship, type or do calligraphy on to stationery and frame it to be hung in her new home.

-Find a door mat with their last name inscribed on it.

-If your neighbor has a dog, get a new dog tag with his name and new address and phone number.

-Get a pretty box of stationery, stamp each envelope and write your address on each.

-If it's going to be a long trip in the car to their new town, put together a picnic basket with all the goodies that the family likes.

-When they arrive, your neighbors are going to have their hands full with unpacking. Put together a basket of canned meats, cheese, and crackers that will help on a tired night.

-Get gift coupons from national pizza parlors, fast take out places. This will help for the trip and those nights of unpacking.