How to Care for your Jewelry
While real precious metals are used for these earrings, the pearls are synthetic, which means that it would be in your best interest to not clean with any harsh chemicals, as it could cause damage to the pearls. In general, the earrings can be cleaned with a polishing cloth, or rinsed with lukewarm water and wiped off.
Below, are instructions and information for each specific metal:
Silver-Filled
Many people are familiar with “silver-plated” jewelry; it is the most commonly used silver alloy for costume or cheaper jewelry. Silver-filled jewelry is of higher quality than silver-plated because it has a thicker coating of silver. Any silver-filled earrings from Things by Kae have a brass base metal that is heat bonded with a coating of silver, making these earrings 1/10 silver.
Because of its higher silver content, these earrings cost more than your average silver-plated jewelry, but still cost less than .925 sterling silver.
Sterling Silver
Sterling silver is a high quality metal and is only a step below pure silver. It’s typically called 0.925 because it is an alloy made of 92.5% silver. Because this metal still has 7.5% of other metals in its alloy, it can still be tarnished. This can be prevented and/or remedied by following the steps above.
Gold-Filled
As with silver-filled, gold-filled jewelry is made with a thicker coating of gold than gold-plated (this type of alloy is also better than vermeil). These pieces are specifically made with 14k gold bonded onto a base metal of brass.