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Brutalist copper experiment gone bad

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Jono's loves641 of 722Vintage Du Barry Richard Hudnut gold tone oblong necklace compactHelp with school project.
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    Posted 11 years ago

    Newtimes
    (306 items)

    A couple of years ago I bought the most amazing set of modernist jewelry. There were some crazy acrylic brooches and a ring (which are impossible to take pictures of) , and this very nice brutalist copper necklace. So here comes the terrible part of my story: At the time I had little or no knowledge about cleaning things (I still am clueless about cleaning the house and I just stopped cleaning jewelry, that works great). Anyway, I think I might have tried to clean this nice necklace with lemon acid or vinegar.
    Immediately the whole thing turned green and grey and it has the most terrible 'rash' (rash is for baby's, but I dont know the correct word for jewelry rash in English).
    Since last time I cleaned my necklace and in the last two pictures you see the result. Almost all green has gone. I m happy with the result, though next time I will definatly try the ketchup method.
    And so here is my question: does anyone have an idea about the maker?
    Thank you so much!

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    Comments

    1. DrFluffy DrFluffy, 11 years ago
      Sorry, I don't know how to reverse back to pre cleaning. I have damaged a few things myself :(
    2. Newtimes Newtimes, 11 years ago
      Thanks DrFluffy for loving my necklace.
      I m sure someone here will have an idea. Im determined to clean it the right way this time.
    3. Roycroftbooksfromme1, 11 years ago
      my wife works with copper jewelry, all the time,.... she cleans it by soaking it in ...are you ready for this ...lol .....ketchup work's like a charm..acid in the tomato's ........lol...........
    4. gargoylecollector gargoylecollector, 11 years ago
      Yep,I use it on brass and you can dip your FrenchFries in it at the same time!
    5. Newtimes Newtimes, 11 years ago
      Thanks roycroftbooksfromme and gargoylecollector for your tips!
      After googling ketchup and copper I figured out vinegar would do the trick as well, so I took a pan, boiled some water with 1 spoon salt and 1 spoon vinegar and dropped my necklace in the boiling water. I left it in there for a while, and tata! It really cleaned up well! I cleaned it with a soft cloth afterwards and its very shiny and new now. The only small issue I have with this method, is that all parts look like copper now, while before it had some white metal too. But thats just a small issue in comparison to how it looked before.
      I m really happy! Thanks a lot! I will try to post a pic of how it now looks.
    6. Newtimes Newtimes, 11 years ago
      Thanks Jono, vetraio50, Roycloftbooks, valentino and DrFluffy for loving my necklace!
    7. Roycroftbooksfromme1, 11 years ago
      the reason she likes ketchup, you have more control over the out come ..like leaving some on to keep its look ...
    8. Newtimes Newtimes, 11 years ago
      Thanks again Roycroftbooksfromme...now I understand
      Next time I will do it with ketchup :-)

    9. Newtimes Newtimes, 11 years ago
      Thanks Jono and vetraio for loving my necklace!
    10. Newtimes Newtimes, 11 years ago
      I added pictures with the result of my cleaning. The pics are not great but I think you can definatly see the improvement.

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