Here are the answers to five of your most-asked jewellery questions

Apart from designing and making jewellery, I love nothing more than getting to know you – giving you sneak peeks behind the scenes, and answering any questions you have about Liri and jewellery in general. So, over the next couple of blogs I’m going to answer the questions that concern you the most, so you feel comfortable with buying jewellery online and getting exactly what you want.

How do I measure my ring size?

I’m not surprised this is your biggest concern. After all, you’ve seen a ring you like online and you can’t try before you buy – how frustrating! Rather than think you’d better not chance it and end up buying one that doesn’t fit, there’s a fool proof way of finding out your ring size, and all you need is a ruler and a ring you already wear. As you can see from the picture below, you just need to place the ruler across the centre of the ring and measure the inside diameter in millimetres.

You can then either send the measurement to me and I can convert it using my handy ring chart, or you can convert it yourself like this:

Yes, you’ll need to have good eyes to measure 0.2 of a millimetre, but don’t worry, round it to the nearest mm and your ring will fit. In fact, some of us can wear a few sizes on one finger – I know I can move between an I to an K on my ring finger, depending on my body temperature, the weather, even the time of the month. But if in doubt, please get in touch. We sell our rings in sizes L, N and P but if you’re nowhere near these sizes, no problem, just get in touch an I can make you a ring to fit you perfectly.

What’s my birthstone?

I know mine, but do you? And did you know there’s more than one birthstone for each month? When it comes to birthstones, we have more choice than just the ‘official’ month stones; you even have stones for your star sign.  See what stones are yours, in the table below, courtesy of https://www.ereferencedesk.com/astrology/stone-astrology/ and the GIA – https://www.gia.edu/UK-EN/birthstones

I love working with genuine gemstones so when you choose a piece of Liri jewellery with your birthstone in it, you’re getting your actual birthstone. So many jewellers sell coloured glass or crystal pieces and will tell you it’s your birthstone, but it isn’t, it’s just coloured glass to look like your birthstone. With Liri, you actually get your genuine birthstone. I want to stress this as jewellers selling coloured glass as birthstones is one of my pet peeves, because you’re not getting what you think you are, and they know it.

My jewellery is sterling silver, does that mean it won’t tarnish?

Tarnish is annoying. It makes our jewellery look dull and we need to clean it. But guess what? It’s not a bad thing. Because when your jewellery tarnishes, it’s very good proof that your jewellery is genuine silver (82.5% silver and above, including sterling, Argentium and fine silver) and not a plated base metal (usually brass). Silver reacts with the oxides in the air (and even the PH of your skin) and turns grey and then black (if you don’t clean it quickly enough). Silver plated brass may change colour, but it tends to turns green as the plating comes off. Some pieces of plated jewellery can even rust. But a genuine silver piece will tarnish and when you clean it, it will brighten up again.

So, don’t worry about tarnish. It’s a pain but it’s a good thing. Just make sure you clean it so it stays shiny.

How do I clean my jewellery?

Did you know we need to clean our jewellery? Just like our clothes, we can’t expect to wear our jewellery all day every day and never clean it. In fact, apart from your wedding or engagement rings, it’s best not to wear a certain piece of jewellery all day, every day, because it will get dirtier more quickly, not to mention suffer from wear and tear, just like if you wore the same clothes every day. Our jewellery needs to be treated with care. It’s not bullet proof and is affected by our sweat, skin oils, lotions and the air around us. It gets dull and clogged up, so we need to clean it to keep it looking its best. So, what do we do? You can read my tips in full here, but here’s the shorter version:

1. Buy a jeweller’s cloth (available from quality jewellers) and buff your pieces whenever they look a bit dull.
2. If your jewellery is really tarnished, put some liquid soap in a bowl of warm water and gently clean the piece in the mixture with a soft toothbrush. Take care around gemstone settings. Leave to dry before putting back in your jewellery box.
3. Always store you pieces in a box you can close as this will stop air and dust getting to the pieces and will slow down the tarnishing process.

Can I customise a piece of your jewellery?

There’s nothing better than owning a piece of jewellery that’s unique to you, is there? And I love working with you to design you something that has a special meaning just for you. You can see a selection of the custom designs I’ve created so far, here, but did you know, you can also customise some pieces from my ready to wear collections? Many of you have your favourite gemstone and want to have it in a piece of my jewellery so that the design can mean more to you. This isn’t a problem, just let me know what stone you want and we can discuss possibilities.

I hope you’ve found this blog helpful? Jewellery’s such an important purchase for so many of us that it’s important we not only make sure we get what we want, but also that we know what it’s made from and how to care for it. Just as we may look at the washing instructions before buying clothes (OK, only when you get to a certain age ;P) it’s important we know as much about the piece of jewellery we’re buying before-hand to make sure it’s what we want and that we can make sure it lasts. 

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