Charm Bracelets Zone

Cleaning charm bracelets made of natural materials is a very different matter than the typical jewelry cleaning techniques. I’m referring to the modern version of perhaps the oldest style of charm bracelets known. These are bracelets often made of strands of colored leather and sporting charms made from exotic wood and bone like the line introduced by Chamilia Beads in recent years.

Because natural elements like leather and wood have an adverse reaction to water, the method of cleaning calls for a different approach from conventional soap and water or heaven forbid an ultrasonic jewelry cleaning bath.

Wood responds well to lemon oil and leather responds well to saddle soap, but not visa versa and no one really wants to disassemble the entire charm bracelet to clean the elements separately.

But there is a way to clean your bracelet and you can do it at home with surprising ease.

• Step #1 You will need about an ounce of cool water. Yes I-know-I-know, I just said water is bad but trust me, this works.

• Step #2 Squeeze and strain the juice of half a fresh lemon and mix it with the water (no cheating, ReaLemon™ juice will not work, so beware)

• Step #3 Take a soft makeup brush or sable artist’s brush dip it in the lemon mixture then squeeze out the excess so it’s just damp, not soaked and apply it in circling motion to a couple of beads at a time, dry off those beads, then move to the next couple of beads and repeat.

• Step #4 Take a fresh piece of soft cloth and rub it briskly against the outer skin of a lemon. This will pickup a tiniest amount of natural lemon oil. Now polish your bracelet with the cloth.

The more you rub the more luster the charm/beads will develop and over time, after applying this method a few times your charm bracelet will develop a rich quality superior to when it was new…and it will smell great too!

You needn’t worry about the lemon juice attacking the leather bracelet because the leather they use is specially treated to resist such things but as I said the trick is to use a damp brush but never soaking and only doing a couple of beads at a time and drying them before moving to the next ones.