I love Bronze because it has a beautiful warm color that pairs with gold and is one of the earliest metals used in jewelry. Bronze is an alloy made of copper and tin. It's history reaches back through millennia and inspired important trade routes in the ancient world. I wear my pieces everyday - except when I swim laps. Last week I went on a family vacation to Kauai and my jewelry got the serious chlorine, salt, and sand treatment. Here's what happened:
Due of the copper content, Bronze can oxidize in combination with moisture, creating a greenish layer of copper carbonate on skin – this usually occurs with rings, so we work with sterling silver bands to eliminate this issue. If you plan to wear your necklace in the water or ocean, we recommend 14k gold filled chains over gold plated chains for our necklaces. Chlorine can dull your piece significantly, but it will polish right up. Patinas are personal. I like the slow change of my bronze pieces that is a parallel of my life journey.
Here is my Poppy Spoon Pendant and Cicada Ring's journey to Hawaii where it met with major chlorine - like I can't imagine a pool more chlorinated - plus salt and sea.
Before:
Here is the ring exposed to 8 days of a heavily chlorinated pool. We swam at least 2 hours per day and I did a plenty of lap swimming in the ocean and left it on.
You can see the bronze has dulled and there is even a tiny bit of green in a few places. I actually love it.
But for the purposes here, I've polished her back up to the original shine:
And here is the poppy spoon - before:
After the Kauai treatment:
We happily wear our pieces every day. You can too!