Cleaning and Displaying your Swarovski Crystal
Cleaning Tips - Some people clean their Swarovski with a mild soap and water. This is fine, but be very careful as the piece could become very slippery and fall out of your hands. A recommendation was given to me for a safer and more effective way to clean them with minimal risk. Go to any automotive store (like Autozone, NAPA, Pepboys, etc.)and buy a gallon of windshield washer fluid. Mix this gallon 50/50 with distilled water. Place a towel on a glass top table or a kitchen counter. Put your Swarovski pieces on the towel, spreading them out at least 6" apart. Spray the mixture of washer fluid and water directly on the crystal. Be generous and spray them till they are dripping wet. THAT'S IT! Come back to them in about 1 hour. They will be dry and dirt and dust free. No rubbing or wiping is needed. Place them back in your cabinet. I do recommend using the gloves provided in the Swarovski Cleaning Kit to handle your newly cleaned and sparkling pieces. If you don't a cleaning kit, one can be purchased on this website.The brush included in the kit is great when cleaning pieces with hard to reach areas, like the hedge hogs!
Please do not clean items on any wood counters as the fluid could damage the surface underneath the towel. We recommend that you try this method with a single item first and see if you get the desired results. Crystal Fox Gallery will not be held liable for any damage done to items during the cleaning process.
It is important that you do not soak your items in water as this could loosen the special glue, thus causing damage to the piece.
Displaying - No matter what type of crystal it is, the more direct light each piece gets the more it will shine and show its true colors. If your display cabinet has recessed light at the top, middle and bottom, the following isn't as important in displaying as for those of us who only have lights shining down from the top only. Never place solid stands (wooden or plastic) on the top
shelf. This only blocks the light for the pieces displayed on the middle and bottom shelves. Try to arrange the larger pieces on the bottom or middle shelves. This will help the light shine more freely thru theglass shelves. More importantly, this will minimize the weight on the top shelf thus making it less
likely for the top shelf to break causing severe damage to the entire collection.You hear horror stories from people who had the top shelf break
because of the weight or the plastic tabs that support the shelf getting brittle from the heat of the lights and/or the age of the supports. Most cabinets come with an 1/8" thick glass shelf. This could be a serious problem. For every square foot of shelf the glass needs to increase 1/8". In other words, if each shelf is only 1 square ft., 1/8" thickness is fine. If it's 2 sq. ft., 1/4" thickness is recommended, 3 sq. ft., 3/8" is fine and so on. If you have those plastic tabs supporting your shelves, change them! You can buy metal ones in a variety of colors from a home improvement store.
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