Why we don’t clean silver with bicarb!
Polishing jewellery is hard and dirty work, don’t spoil it with Bicarb! Put the bicarb down! We’ve all seen the ‘magic’ trick of using bicarbonate of soda with tin foil and hot water to clean tarnished silver jewellery, but does it actually work? Yes is the answer! It does work, and it works well for removing tarnish, but the reason it’s working is harming your jewellery! The sciencey bit Chemically speaking, tarnish is silver sulfide, and it can be reduced back to silver in a classic redox electrochemical reaction. Tarnished silver (the cathode) is placed in direct contact with an
Making your jewellery sustainable
Making your jewellery sustainable I wanted to talk to you about the steps I’m taking in making my jewellery business as sustainable as possible, as it’s a huge part of my brands ethos. We all want to tread lightly on this planet, so here’s what I’m doing already to keep my jewellery as eco-conscious and sustainable as possible: ? I use recycled sterling silver wherever possible with my pieces, which saves on unnecessary mining of new materials. Did you know that a lot of electronics contain silver and gold? Including our mobile phones! And it can all be melted down
A day in my life
Fancy a behind the scenes tour of a day in my life? The fabulous Cornish based Kernowcraft very kindly asked me to film a day in the life of a jeweller with them- and you can see the finished video below! I had great fun creating the video as the day went on, cuddling the kitties when they made an appearance and showing what I get up to behind the camera- I hope you enjoy a little glimpse into my word and my jewellery studio! They also did a written Q & A with me too! You can find the
Muddy Stilettos Awards Finalist
I’m a Finalist!! It’s very exciting here at Black Cat Jewellery HQ right now- not only have I been nominated, but I’m in the final top 5 for Jewellery Store in the Essex Muddy Stilettos 2021 Awards!! I couldn’t be more over the moon!!? The voting has been set back to 0 for the final voting section, so we’re starting from scratch! With voting closing at 5pm on July 23rd, there’s not much time left to get your votes in! If you’d like to vote, please click HERE. You’ll be asked to register your email address to be in with
All about Hallmarking
My first hallmarked parcel has arrived back from the @theassayoffice ✨ Oh the excitement! ✨
So here is my very own hallmark! And a little ‘did you know’ too-
✨Each mark is made up of 5 sections from L-R- the sponsors/makers mark (mine is KH in a diamond), the fineness symbol (the lion), the fineness mark (925 for sterling silver), the assay office mark (the London leopard for me, obviously I was going to choose a cat!!), and the year (W= 2021).
Biz’ee Women Interview
Here’s a little interview I did with the lovely Sharon Hawkins of Biz’ee Women Networking on May 6th. She asked me lot’s of questions about my business, and I did my best to answer them! I hope you enjoy it finding out a little bit more about me and Little Black Cat Jewellery!