I know most of you think that cleaning silver is a chore and it can be if you don’t think of it as a beautiful piece of art work, just needing to show itself from under all that dirt (tarnish). When I was growing up my mother had her “own special way to clean tarnish”. She would put a pie tin or aluminum foil into the dishwasher or sink with detergent and “let” the tarnish cleang to the pie tin. You could see it happen miraculously.

Ah, but you silver had this grey tinge on and it was okay because the tarnish was gone. Where did that come from?

Well, you know I’m going to tell you this isn’t a good thing. The care of your silver includes the need to be polished. Cleaning isn’t everything, polishing has to follow. So, why not just pull the silver polish/cleaner out from under the sink (you know it’s hidden there) and sit down, relax, have a cup of coffee or tea and visit with your silver for a few minutes as often as you can. You “will” feel better knowing that it is pretty and looks the way it should.

I use International silver polish and I like the paste variety. I get to rub it onto the silver and (you must do this) rub it off when it is dry. It is always a good thing to rinse your silver after rubbing off the polish, this way you will get the excess polish off the pieces (and dry them). AHH beautiful silver!!!!