Sterling Silver Jewelry
Repairs & Polishing

The challenges of Sterling Silver Jewelry

Repairing sterling silver jewelry always presents unique challenges.  Working on sterling silver is more difficult than working with gold. Most jewelry stores will not even touch silver jewelry. 

If a repair on sterling silver jewelry can be done, I can do it, however, difficulties with repairing sterling jewelry include a risk to the stones, heat transfer when soldering silver, and Rhodium plating. Sometimes, I can come up with innovative solutions to circumvent the problems in repairing sterling silver jewelry.  My state-of-the-art TIG welder is perfect for repairing sterling silver jewelry, but nothing about sterling silver jewelry is easy.

An additional concern is that a lot of sterling silver jewelry is inexpensive costume jewelry or made in third world countries at third world labor prices.  In contrast, when I am working on your silver jewelry, it is one-of-a-kind custom work requiring skill and experience. It is not uncommon that repairing sterling silver jewelry exceeds the original purchase price.

Please send me a photo of your silver jewelry, and we can discuss repair options. I can not provide estimates for repairs over the phone.  

Silver Dragon Motif Necklace and Bracelet

This silver necklace and bracelet had a stunning dragon motif with purple stones that are possibly amethysts. Both the necklace and bracelet had damaged hinges, and non-functional clasps, along with previous repairs that were poorly done and needed to be fixed. The soft silver alloy used for the necklace and bracelet made this silver jewelry difficult to work on. The stones will not tolerate heat so that added a layer of complexity.

Both hinges were repaired first. That sounds easy, but it was not! One of the hinges had old lead solder repairs and holes that needed to be repaired.

The bracelet had a handmade screw clasp that I was able to repair as best as possible so that it was functional.

For the necklace, the original screw clasp was missing I constructed a new decorative screw clasp for the necklace (left photo,) using the design of the bracelet clasp (right photo) as a reference for the design. In addition, the necklace screw has a tiny swivel for the safety chain (so the safety chain does not wrap around the screw.) The safety chain was added so that the necklace catch screw would not be easily lost. I chose to attach the safety chain to the already existing structure of the necklace with a jump ring instead of drilling a new hole into the necklace. This was the least invasive way of attaching the safety chain. It is important to me to try to preserve the original structure as much as possible.

Hector Aguilar MID-20TH-CENTURY Mexican Silver Necklace

I was so excited to work on this Hector Aguilar silver necklace. Hector Aguilar is an amazing silver master from Taxco, Mexico who was trained by William Spratling. This necklace has a very unique design and is fabricated with silver wire. The graduated horizontal links allow it to curve around the neck, contrasting with the vertical links to make a pattern. The catch (seen in the photo below right) is successfully integrated into the design so that you can only see it from behind and there is no interruption in the pattern. This came to me with broken links (below left). Fortunately, none of them were missing. Fixing this was a bit of a puzzle to figure out but I was able to reassemble all the pieces. This is a perfect example of using my TIG welder to keep the original patina.

Hector Aguilar Taxco Mexican Silver Jewelry repaired

This sterling silver bracelet marked Taxco arrived broken. For repairs like this, the greatest concern is previous repairs that are poorly done. I always inspect the jewelry very carefully before I start working. The other concern with this bracelet was years of wear had worn the silver very thin. This is a fabulous design as the balls and squares are the hinged elements.

Silver Native American Bracelet Updated for a modern appearance.

This silver Native American Indian bracelet with turquoise was inherited by the client, but it was not a style she felt comfortable wearing. The goal was to remove the decorative elements on the side so that this silver bracelet would have a more modern appearance keeping it's sentimental value.  (The bracelet did not have a maker's mark.)

Polishing Silver jewelry

This Tibetan necklace arrived with a dark film of grime and tarnish. Instead of giving this a high polish, I spend time removing grime in the crevices and a soft polished finish appropriate to the age and origin of this ethnic jewelry. The customer said, “And the necklace! I first saw that necklace in 1976, and I don't believe in all those years it ever looked as lovely as it does now.” 

John Hardy Sterling silver woven Wire bracelet catch repaired

The catch on this bracelet arrived broken. It takes time just to figure out how this can be repaired without dissembling the entire catch or making a new catch, both very expensive repairs. Catches are a very complicated repair which is always compounded by the wear on the sterling silver catch which makes the catch sloppy. Sterling silver is a soft metal compared to gold. The catches often wear out. Fortunately, I was able to figure out a relatively simple solution and was able to rebuild the catch so it functioned tightly. .

Sterling silver cast and filigree cross on rosary

This cross arrived broken in two pieces. The center is a fine network of cast silver and filigree wires. It required 10x magnification to repair the wires, one at a time.

Vintage Silver Charm Bracelet

This vintage sterling silver charm bracelet was a classic mid-20th century fashion accessory. One of the charms needed to be attached. Every jump ring should be soldered to avoid losing an irreplaceable charm.

STERLING SILVER JEWELRY cuff links Broken REPAIR

Repairing these sterling silver cuff links included a risk to the stones. Neither the stones or the cuff link mechanism can tolerate heat.  It turned out great, but I always need to explain the risks to the customer.

Sterling Silver Broken Ring Repair

Adding a patch of sterling silver makes for a much stronger repair when a piece is broken like this. On this ring, I added a patch on the inside of the ring band to conceal it. The pattern needed to be pierced out to match the top exactly. The ring now has double the thickness around the area of the pattern and is stronger than it was when originally made.

Sterling Silver Prayer Box Bail Repair

The jump rings and bails on sterling silver pendants get worn down over the years. The bail on this prayer box pendant had become dangerously thin (left) after years of regular wear. Bails and jump rings that have deep grooves like this can be replaced or repaired. This bail was repaired using my state-of-the-art TIG welder to fill in the worn areas with new silver, one spec at a time.