For those of us that love to wear our favourite pieces of jewellery on a daily basis, or if your just one of those people that may only wear an engagement ring and wedding ring, the huge challenge we all have is trying to keep it looking shiny so that it still makes the statement it did when we first purchased it.

There are many reasons that your jewellery can end up looking dull and grimy but believe it or not most of the time it’s down to your daily routine and you’re not even realising.  

Hair products, moisturises and perfume/aftershave are one of the main factors of your jewellery looking dull and dirty. These products easily get trapped in between the hard to reach areas of your jewellery, for example in between the links of chains and bracelets or under the setting of a ring which also stops light from making the stones sparkle.

So how do you keep your jewellery looking clean and shiny?

Maybe choose to do this procedure once a month but nothing hurts doing it every couple of weeks if you’d prefer. 

• Soak your jewellery in a warm solution of mild liquid detergent and water. Lemon fairy liquid is a good choice, but any other mild detergent is fine. 

• Use a soft brush or toothbrush if necessary to remove dirt. Soft is the key -- don't use a brush with bristles that are stiff enough to scratch the jewellery’s surface.

• Swish the ring around in the solution, and then rinse it thoroughly in warm water. Close the drain first, or put  the jewellery in a strainer to keep from losing it! 

• Dry the items with a lint-free cloth.

• If you have a ring setting which needs extra help, use a dental Water Pik to flush away small bits of grime. You can also use a wooden toothpick to very carefully push dirt away from the setting. 

Here at Pledge's we also offer a professional jewellery cleaning service from just £2. 

Hi, my name is Paul Ulliott and I am the owner of Pledge Jewellers & Body Piercing. 

You will have to excuse  me as this is my first attempt at blogging but I will give it a go. 

I thought I would start our business blog just by telling you a bit about the shops and what services we provide. 


I opened Pledge Jewellers all the way back in 1990  which is 25 years ago now (how time flies). There was some very tough times back in the beginning and without the joys of the internet I made business and customers just by word of mouth. 


My small shop had  1 cabinet in it which had a couple of pieces of jewellery in it, this was everything I had.  I then started a pawnbroking service where people would leave me their jewellery and I would give them a loan against it.  As time went on I accumulated more jewellery which people never returned  to  collect and this is how my business started to grow. 
So after a few years  I needed to buy a slightly bigger shop and the one next door to me became available so I upgraded and I have been here ever since.  

After 8 years I decided to  open another shop across the other side of town Newland Pledge Ltd . It was great having a shop on the West side of town as customers now didn't have to travel from West Hull to East Hull to use me, they could now just pop to Newland Avenue. 

Both of these stores to this day provide a huge range of service ,  

• Pawnbroking
  
• Buying
  
• Selling
  
• Jewellery, Watch & Clock repairs
  

In the year 2000  I  think I caught the millennium bug and came up with a crazy idea of opening something completely different to what I had ever dealt in. 
So I opened Pledge Body Piercing Ltd.  The added bonus with this Piercing shop is that it is located next door to the jewellers. 
I was a complete novice to this but I knew Piercing was what people wanted.  I hired a fully qualified Body Piercer  and watched the business gradually improve and we now have 2 fully qualified female piercers and one who is currently training.  

In 2008  I  was very optimistic  but I made the decision to set up an eBay  shop where we could display and sell our current stock. We now have over 4500 in Feedback and currently have over 2000 individual items listed. Visit our eBay store!  
1 year later we decided to do the same for our Newland Avenue branch  and we opened up an ebay store for that branch.  They have over 1000 individual items listed and have  over 2500 feedback. Visit Newland Pledge Ebay!

So here I am in the summer of 2015  going from strength to strength , I have 7 members of staff  working between the 3 shops and later on this year we hope to be re-locating to a bigger shop just further down the road from where we are located at the moment. 

Thanks for reading my first blog, I hope you found the information interesting and useful. Feel free to leave a comment below.

Thanks Paul