Cleaning Talismans

I had a rather amusing e-mail the other day. A client was very concerned that the talisman they had bought had [big pause for effect] TURNED BLACK!!! This would be very, very worrisome if this was not the natural effect of moisture and air on silver and bronze, it's called tarnish.

Now, that's not to say that tarnish can't be telling us something. I find with protection talismans, for example, if someone is throwing malefic magic at you, that your protection talismans can tarnish faster than normal. Don't however, start getting paranoid over this, since it could just be that you're wearing them in a humid room!

So, not surprisingly, lots of clients ask me, "how should I clean talismans?" Good question! Silver talismans you can use silver polish on. Be careful with our really old style talismans with the flat finish on the background that you don't scrap or scratch the finish. This is why we phased that style out, because I don't want even an occasional scratch.

But this question becomes more difficult now that we have added bronze talismans. "How do you clean bronze?' Well, you don't want to use Brasso or other cleaners intended for outdoor brass and bronze like signs or fittings, because these cleaners are abrasive.

What I've found and this works great for gold, silver and bronze is the Sunshine cloth. This is a soft cloth impregnated with cleaning
solution. You can get the Sunshine cloth at Amazon or just google search them.