:: I use both sterling and fine silver in my jewelry. Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, which means that it is much softer than sterling. Please be gentle with your fine silver pieces!
:: I also use 14k gold-filled metal in some of my pieces. Although gold-filled metal is not pure gold, it should NOT be confused with gold-plated metal. Gold-filled metal is a high-quality material that contains 100 times more gold than gold-plated metal. It created through a sophisticated heat process which bonds 14k gold to a base metal, resulting in a metal which posesses the beauty and longevity of 14k gold, but offers both greater strength and affordability.
:: Remove jewelry when swimming, bathing, washing hands, using cleaning supplies, etc.
:: With normal wear and exposure to air, sterling, fine silver, and gold-filled metals will eventually tarnish. To prevent oxidation, jewelry can be kept in the zip-loc bag in which it arrives. If and when tarnish does develop, your jewelry can simply be cleaned with a silver polish cloth.