Posted 8 years ago
freiheit
(1224 items)
I am not sure if this is Lucite or some other kind of plastic but I am sure it is a few decades old. The clip-on earrings were found in excellent shape but the hardware needs some gentile cleaning.
The ring was in pretty bad shape but I brought it back to life. I used a soft cloth and toothpaste to polish it. Now it looks in great shape.
Thanks for looking:)
Your stuff matches my stuff! The ring looks wonderful - what brand of toothpaste did you use? I need to polish up my faux tortoise shell items. Lucite jewelry is seamless.
Thanks for your comment, Efesgirl. I stay away from anything with seams because most of it feels very light and sometimes looks rather cheep. So no seems, but I am not sure what it is, but I am sure it is NOT Bakelite.
I use any white toothpaste, not the gel ones. I put a thin layer, let it dry and then polish it. If needed, I repeat it several times. This takes care of most scratches and gives back the luster.
I'll have to pick up a tube of white toothpaste and get busy polishing my stuff. Circular motions or straight across?
Efesgirl, you are asking too much - LOL! I just heard that it works on the plastic light covers of cars and I thought if it works on this stuff, it will surely work on my plastic jewelry. And sure enough, it really works! I also remembered that my grandma used toothpaste to clean some of her silver. My tip would be to try it on a piece of lesser value first!
Hahahaha!!! I'll try it on a corner of the box that's in need of brightening and see how it goes.
Toothpaste isn't recommended for silver because it can scratch it rather than restore the shine.
I know there are websites that recommend toothpaste for silver, however:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/The-Do-s-and-Don-ts-of-Cleaning-Silver-/10000000177627480/g.html
Mary, I don't seem to be able to find Simichrome in Canada. I'll pick some up when I go to the States next time. I even checked out what's in Simichrome to see if I can find something similar here but so far no luck. I never heard of Novus. I'll look into it too:)
Mary, many thanks for your valuable information. I will follow up on the lead you provided. And yes, I will be careful. I learned my lesson the hard way. Now I either leave things the way they are, use what I know will do no damage, or experiment only on pieces that I can spare to lose:)