Antiquing – Helen Chantler

Antiquing Our Jewelry

Antiquing is a process through which the background behind the Celtic design is darkened, which accentuates the knot work designs. The process is relatively permanent. You can wash dishes, go swimming or clean the house without worrying about the antiquing coming off. However, excessive contact with strong bleaching agents will eventually remove the antiquing.

Antiquing Silver

At Reflective Images, we antique all our gold over sterling silver and silver designs because we like to accentuate our design elements against a dark background. To achieve this effect we use an oxidation process. Silver would naturally oxidize on its own, often quickly in humid climates. We just accelerate the process chemically using sulfur.

Here are two examples of designs that show the antiquing as a design element.

Antiquing Gold, Palladium, Platinum and Steel

Solid gold, palladium, platinum and steel do not naturally oxidize like silver. Therefore, we use a chemical process to create a darkened background. You choose to whether to antique your gold ring or not. The antiquing process creates greater contrast between the design and its background.

Here are some examples of antiquing with solid white gold and yellow gold. We can also antique platinum, palladium and stainless steel. They would look similar to the white gold examples.

Whether to antique a design is strictly a matter of personal preference. It is possible to add antiquing any time after you purchase the ring, but it is difficult to remove the antiquing once it is on. If you have any questions about the antiquing process, feel free to call us.

Care

We recommend that you do not clean our jewelry with a liquid cleaner, as that will remove the antiquing particularly with our silver and gold and silver jewelry. Use a jewelry polishing cloth instead. In fact, it is usually possible to make your jewelry look as good as when you first purchased it just with a cloth, which we sell upon request. We can always add the antiquing again one of our pieces, should you need us to.