Caring For Collectible Christmas Ornaments

Caring For Your Collectible Christmas Ornaments

     KCIC Collectible Porcelain and Glass Christmas Ornaments

Experts agree that a little extra care of your collectible ornaments helps to maintain and increase their value. A build-up of dust damages the finish and reduces their value. Before you put your ornaments away take time to dust and clean them lightly.

Cleaning Hollow Fragile Ornaments: Be cautious when cleaning hollow glass porcelain or crystal Christmas ornaments drops or garlands and especially gentle if the surface of your ornament is hand painted or decorated with glitter. Always use a soft natural hair brush for cleaning your ornaments. Look for sable ox or squirrel hair artist brushes in the filbert, hake, oval wash or square wash shapes at your local artist supply store or at a reputable artist supply store on line. Never use water, soap, solvents, liquid or anything wet of any kind on hand beaded or glittered ornaments.

Glass/ porcelain/ crystal ornaments with a plain smooth or un-decorated surface can be cleaned with a clean soft dry lint-free cloth. Since most collectible glass or porcelain ornaments are delicate avoid handling them excessively. Set them down on a soft, well-padded surface to clean. Handle the pieces carefully do not squeeze the body of the ornament when you hold it for cleaning. Otherwise you could break it. A cylindrical ornament stand (such as a sphere or paperweight stand) will be helpful for holding your ornament steady while you are cleaning it.

Cleaning Fragile Solid Ornaments: Solid crystal glass or porcelain ornaments are less susceptible to contact breakage but should still be handled carefully. Solid glass ornaments, crystal drops, glass bead or porcelain garlands can be cleaned with a soft cloth moistened by a few drops of a good quality gentle glass cleaner without solvents. A one/three parts mixture of white vinegar and water will also work but could damage the brass connectors between the garland beads. Set them down on a soft well-padded surface to clean. A cylindrical stand (such as an egg sphere or paperweight stand) will be helpful for holding ornaments steady while cleaning. Plastic cleaning gloves with roughened finger tips will give you a better grip on the item and stop a glass/crystal garland from slipping through your fingers (onto the floor!) They'll also prevent unwanted fingerprints on the surface of a cleaned crystal ornament or garland.

Cleaning Metal Ornaments: Sterling silver silver plated or solid brass metal ornaments can be cleaned with a clean soft cloth or with a cloth impregnated with cleaning solution recommended by the manufacturer of the ornament. A similar type of cloth is normally available at your local jewelry store. Clean your solid metal - sterling silver, brass, gold ornaments, garlands or ornament hooks with a jeweler recommended polish or polish impregnated cloth. If your ornaments are nickel silver, 14-24K gold, sterling silver or brass-plated they are probably also lacquered to prevent tarnish. Using polish on them may damage the finish. So be sure to check with the manufacturer and follow their recommended cleaning procedure.

Cleaning Resin Ornaments: Use a soft natural hair brush - such as mentioned above unless the ornament is glittered. The resin itself is imperious to water. However the paint and decorations applied to the ornament may not be. To be on the safe side do not use water solvents or anything wet of any kind on these ornaments / collectibles either. Follow the manufacturers'; recommended cleaning procedure.

Cleaning Paper Ornaments: Paper or cast paper ornaments should be wrapped in unbuffered tissue and stored flat. Follow the manufacturers'; recommendations for cleaning.

After cleaning wrap the ornaments in acid-free, unbuffered tissue paper archive quality paper towels or acid free lightweight cotton batting (thin cotton stuffing sometimes used for quilts padding in garments or pillows). Here's a tip that could save you money: Bounty white paper towels are acid free. Please note that Bounty is not marked or advertised as archival quality unbuffered or acid free. However in 2011, Proctor and Gamble verified for my personal use that none of their Bounty white paper towels contain acid. They suggest using it for storing ornaments or small collectibles.

What is Not Recommended Storage for archival quality wrapping or storing of collectible ornaments?

• newspaper unless it is acid free" unbuffered, unprinted archival quality newsprint
• fabric softener sheets
• paper sheets or shred ( unbuffered tissue is fine.)
• Storage in plastic / acrylic boxes
• wrapping paper unless it is unbuffered" acid free unbuffered paper sheets.