When I was a teenager, my mother gave me a gold bangle — the very same bracelet her own mother had bought for her years before. It hasn’t left my wrist since. I wear it every single day.
I understand the instinct to keep precious things locked away. When a piece is beautiful and carries that kind of weight, the last thing you want is to scratch it, lose it, or waste it on an ordinary Tuesday. So it stays safe in its box.
Here’s the thing I want to gently argue you out of: fine jewellery isn’t fragile treasure to be guarded. It’s made to be lived in. The ring that becomes part of your hand, that you stop noticing because it’s simply there every day — that’s the one that gives you back everything you spent on it. The one in the drawer gives you nothing.
So let’s talk about how to actually wear the good pieces, every day, without the worry.
Some pieces are simply built for daily life
This is where I get to borrow my father’s decades at the bench, because not every stone wants the same life. If you want something to wear constantly and barely think about, the hardest stones are your friends.
Sapphires and rubies are wonderfully tough — they take knocks, keyboards, handbags and washing-up in their stride. Diamonds are the hardest of all, though even a diamond has edges that can chip against a hard surface, so they’re daily pieces that still deserve a little awareness.
Emeralds, opals and pearls are a different story. They are among the most beautiful things we sell and you can absolutely wear them often. They simply ask for a little more care, being softer by nature and more sensitive to knocks, heat and chemicals. Many of our clients wear their pearls and emeralds regularly and love them all the more for it. If you fall for one of these stones, we’ll explain exactly how to look after it, so you can enjoy it with confidence.
One quiet note on gold, too. 18k is 75% pure gold, so it has a deeper, richer colour, resists tarnish and keeps its colour through a lifetime of daily wear. 14k is 58.5% gold, a little paler in tone, and also a good choice for pieces you wear every day. It’s worth knowing the difference before you buy.
Wearing your pieces daily isn’t an invitation to be careless. When you live in your jewellery, you develop a quiet awareness of what you’re wearing and how to protect it through the rhythm of your day.
The small habits that keep a piece looking new
None of this is fussy. It’s five seconds and it becomes second nature fast.
The simplest rule: jewellery goes on last. After your lotion, perfume and hairspray — never before. Those products build up on metal and dull a stone faster than anything else.
Hand cream is the one we see most often at our bench. It works its way into the setting and builds up on and under the stone, until a diamond that should sparkle looks dull and cloudy. Let the cream sink in fully before your rings go back on.
One habit worth breaking: taking your rings off to wash your hands in a restaurant. It happens more often than you’d think. A ring is left beside the sink and forgotten. Keep it on, and simply dry your hands well afterwards.
And a few moments to take pieces off: before the gym, before the pool or the sea, before cleaning with harsh products. Chlorine, salt water and bleach are hard on both metal and stones. That’s really the whole list.
A soft cloth wipe when you take a piece off at night does more than you’d think — it lifts away the day’s oils and keeps everything bright between proper cleans.
For more detail on caring for each type of piece, see our Jewellery Care Guide.
When it's worth bringing to us
Once or twice a year, it’s worth having a piece looked at properly. A check that the setting is still holding your stone securely — prongs do loosen quietly over years of wear and catching it early is how you don’t lose a stone. A professional clean that reaches what a home cloth can’t and brings back the fire underneath. A resize, so a ring sits comfortably enough that you genuinely forget you’re wearing it.
These are proper workshop services, done at our bench by people who know your piece — so bring it in and we’ll talk you through exactly what it needs. Our workshop is part of the shop, so the care your jewellery needs is always close at hand, for as long as you own it. That, to me, is the whole point of buying from a family atelier rather than a screen.
The piece that gets worn becomes yours
When someone gives you a piece of jewellery, it carries them with it. You wear it, you touch it without thinking and every time it’s a quiet reminder of the person who gave it to you, for a lifetime. And truly fine jewellery is made to outlast us. It goes on, passed from one generation to the next, gathering stories as it goes. That can only happen if it’s worn.
So this is my one invitation: go and open the box. Take out the piece you’ve been saving, and start wearing it. And if it needs a little attention first — a clean, a check, a resize to make it comfortable enough to live in — bring it to us at our Nicosia atelier. We’ll get it ready for the life it was made for.
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