Care instructions
We hope you are enjoying your JHW piece. Detailed here are some simple guidelines for caring for your jewellery.
Jo Hayes Ward jewellery is produced in a variety of 18ct Gold alloys, silver and precious and semi-precious stones. A defining feature of our designs is the construction of jewellery from multi-faceted building-block elements, each with their own fine texture. On buying a piece, the edges of these elements will be crisp, but they will naturally wear down slightly over time and with wear. This wearing process is unique to each owner, dependent on how each individual wears and personalises their jewellery, creating their own finish over time.
Most of our rings, for example commitment rings and shield rings are suitable for everyday wear. There are some designs however, which are more suited to occasional wear. These include much of the structural collection, which have a more delicate lace-like metal structure or pieces with delicate stones – naturally more care needs to be taken when wearing these pieces.
Our jewellery can be kept in good condition, provided some simple care guidelines are followed:
Regular handling
It is advisable to remove your jewellery before engaging in practical activities to ensure it does not get accidentally damaged. We recommend that our rings are not worn when handling other metal objects – for example, that rings be taken off when gardening, at the gym or during other forms of exercise. Repetitive movement against metals of different hardness will damage the ring over time.
It is also recommended that our 18ct gold rings are worn only next to rings also made of 18ct gold. This is because different metals have different hardnesses– a harder metal such as platinum will wear down 18ct gold over time.
Please note: Rings worn on adjacent fingers, directly next to each other
will wear each other down over time, regardless of their metal type.
It’s advisable to remove rings, particularly those with stones before applying hand cream, moisturizer etc as these can leave residue and dirt on the surfaces of the jewellery which will dull the finish.
Cleaning
All jewellery will need cleaning from time to time. It’s safe to clean our jewellery yourself using warm water with a mild detergent (e.g. washing up liquid) and a softbrush.
Do try not to expose our jewellery to household chemicals, perfume or hairspray, as these can cause precious stones and metals to tarnish and discolour.
You may find the jewellery will benefit from an occasional professional clean as well. Jo Hayes Ward’s workshop will be happy to provide this service – please contact us for details.
Restoring surface finishes
With wear, matt surfaces can start to polish up; this is especially true with rings, which receive more everyday wear.
To restore a matt finish, very gently rub the piece with a green scouring pad, in a soft circular motion, with warm soapy water. If you are unsure, you can test this out on the underside of the ring first. Ensure you dry the piece completely afterwards.
You can use a gold cloth / polish to restore the shine to polished pieces.
Storage of all JHW pieces
If the piece is not being worn, it is recommended that it is stored in its JHW box or another padded jewellery box.
Don’t store multiple pieces in the same box without some kind of protection between them – for example by wrapping individually in tissue paper.
Necklaces and earrings with moving parts should be stored flat, ensuring any chain is untangled to minimise breakages of the finer elements.
Notes on silver pieces
Silver pieces come in either a white or grey/black (oxidised) finish. White silver will naturally oxidise or tarnish over time particularly in recessed crevices of the designs. This creates a rather interesting two-tone finish accentuating the 3D qualities of the piece. However it is easy to restore the white finish if desired using silver foam polish – this is best applied with a soft tooth brush and then cleaned thoroughly afterwards with warm soapy water and then dried.
Oxidised silver pieces have a surface treatment to make the normally white metal an even grey/black. This surface finish will start to rub back over time with wear, exposing the silver underneath. This worn effect can be desirable as silver highlights are added to the piece. However, if you would like the oxidised surface restored Jo Hayes Ward’s workshop can of course assist -please contact us for details.
Notes for pieces containing diamond beads:
We use beautiful roughly faceted diamond beads in some collections: As a luxury chain in necklaces or to feature in limited edition drop earrings. The diamond beads are strung on a 19 strand stainless steel fine cable, which is the strongest cable available for these kinds of pieces. Even so, there are a few things, which should be kept in mind when caring for and handling on a regular basis.
Storage:
Special care should be taken to ensure the diamond chain is stored flat and straight and that the cable the diamonds are strung on is not allowed to bend in any way. Allowing the this to kink runs the risk of the chain becoming damaged by weakening its structure.
Regular handling:
With regular wear:, a piece like this may need to be restrung, particularly if it is not stored in optimal conditions, but also because the beads are diamonds and as such their hardness can eventually wear through the cable they are strung on.
We recommend that if it is being worn regularly throughout the year, a piece like this may need to be restrung as a precautionary measure – similarly to a pearl necklace - on a bi-annual basis. Jo Hayes Ward’s studio and most good jewellery stores will be able to offer this service at a
reasonable cost.
Notes on earrings:
All our gold stud earrings by default come with a small 18ct gold scroll (butterfly/ ear back) for securing the earring. Silver earrings have a medium sized scroll. General care needs to be taken to ensure the scroll remains secure as with long term wear or should earrings get snagged at any point they can become loose. It is worth regularly checking that the scroll is tightly gripping the earring post. If it seems loose this can easily be rectified by lightly pinching the two rolls of the scroll together with pliers or between two fingers.
Some people find that, due to the shape of their earlobe or the placement of their ear piercing, earrings can flop forward. This can be rectified by having a larger scroll which offers more balance and supports the earring to sit upright.
We do have a couple of other larger scroll options which can help with this, are a bit easier to handle and, as they are heavier in weight, will also be slower to loosen over time. However, due to the rising cost of gold and as these scrolls weigh a fair bit more, they are more expensive. If it is not important to you to have 18ct gold scroll there are various other options should you need a larger scroll.
Please contact us for details if you would like to upgrade your earring backs.
Earring post length:
All our stud earrings by default have a post which is just under 1cm. We have found that this tends to be the most comfortable for our clients. However, very occasionally some people may find that this is not long enough to secure the earring properly with a scroll though their ear lobe piercing. If you find you regularly loose earrings it may be because you need longer posts. We can make all our stud earrings to order with a slightly longer post if necessary.