Ask the Experts Seed Beads Q&A

I have a woven seed bead necklace that someone wants me to make earrings for. It consists of regular pink seed beads accented with matte gold seeds. The customer wants to clean the necklace. How do you clean this necklace without removing the color from the beads?

- Karyn

ODX Degreaser and Glitz Jewelry Shiner are organic-based cleaners that would work safely and effectively on the glass seed beads, as well as the ones with the matte gold finish. These cleaners are atomized in small amounts through a spray nozzle, preventing a dousing, which would not be ideal given you do not know what the stringing material is or the condition it is in. Soaking the necklace could damage or weaken the fibers often used in stringing material.

Once the necklace is cleaned, it would be a good idea to store it in a soft fabric bag between uses to protect the finish of the gold beads as well as prevent dust from settling into the fibers of the stringing material.

- Tammy Honaman, Author, Jewelry-Making Expert and Educator