Care
Care & Materials
Two materials, brass and fired enamel, and they want opposite things. Brass wants to be polished. Enamel wants to be left alone. Here is how to keep both.
What it is made of
| Charm | Solid brass, cut and pressed, then enamelled. Not plated, not gold-filled, not gold. Brass is roughly two parts copper to one part zinc. |
|---|---|
| Colour | Vitreous enamel — powdered glass fused to the metal in a kiln. One firing per colour, so a two-colour piece goes through twice. |
| Hoop | Solid brass, 12 mm across, hinged catch. The same hoop on all twelve pieces. |
| Weight | 4 g to 9 g the pair, depending on the piece. The paperclip is the lightest and the claw hammer the heaviest. Each product page gives its own figure. |
| Nickel | None added — brass is copper and zinc. We hold no test certificate for trace content, so we do not use the phrase “nickel free” as though it were certified. |
| Packaging | A plain card box and a recycled backing card. No ribbon, no tissue, no foam. |
Day to day
Nothing here is difficult. The one rule that matters is the first.
- Last on, first offPut them on after perfume, hairspray and moisturiser, and take them off before you take anything else off. Alcohol and oils are what dull brass fastest.
- Not in waterShower, bath, pool and sea all come off first. Chlorine and salt attack brass directly; soap films in the recesses of a textured charm and dulls the enamel.
- Dry cloth on the brassA jeweller's polishing cloth, thirty seconds, and the hoop is bright again. Do this when you notice it, not on a schedule.
- Damp cloth on the enamelWater, a soft cloth, dry straight away. That is the whole enamel routine.
- Flat in a box, not in a bowlEnamel against enamel chips. Keep the pairs separated — the box they arrive in does the job.
- Never a dip or an ultrasonicSilver dip strips the finish, ultrasonic cleaners shake enamel off at the rim. Both will do more damage than the tarnish you were trying to remove.
The brass will darken
It is not a defect and it is not a failure of the finish. Brass oxidises in air, faster where it touches skin, and a hoop that was bright in the photograph will be warmer and duller in six months.
Some people like that and leave it. If you do not, a polishing cloth takes it back in under a minute and no harm is done. What you should not do is reach for a chemical dip, which will also attack the enamel edge.
Plating would have prevented this. Plating also wears through at exactly the point a hoop passes through an ear, and then the piece looks worse than unplated brass ever does.
What will happen, and what will not
- The brass will darken. Weeks, not years. A cloth reverses it.
- Some skin will mark green. Copper reacting with sweat. Harmless, washes off, and not everyone gets it.
- Enamel can chip if dropped on stone. It is glass. A chip cannot be repaired invisibly.
- Small bubbles and a bright brass line at the rim are normal. Both are what firing looks like.
- The colour will not fade in sunlight. Fired glass does not behave like pigment.
- The charm will not come off the hoop. It is fixed, on purpose.
Where it is made
Mirethax is a Hong Kong company. We design the range, choose the colours and set the specification; the cutting, pressing and firing is done by our manufacturing partner. We are not the workshop and we do not claim to be.
If you want to know something specific about how a piece is put together, ask. We will tell you what we know and say so plainly when we do not.
Not sure which one?
The index page lists all twelve in order of price, with sizes.