Tarnish Issue

 

Dear Mang Brata,

We have received reports from Macy's that our Bali earrings are tarnishing faster than normal. I visited a store myself and saw the new hoop and sculptured wire styles (such as GH323S-06 and HB283S-01) were very tarnished after only a few months on display. Silver earrings from our other vendors looked noticeably better. Once an earring is tarnished, the store cannot sell it. If this occurs too often, the store will charge us for the loss. We are very concerned about this issue.

I understand Bali's climate promotes tarnish. I see you include anti-tarnish strips in your FG packaging, and I thank you for taking that measure. I have some additional recommendations to prevent tarnish from our in-house production expert:

- If your water source contains sulfur, use distilled water for burnishing and cleaning.

- Do not use cleaning agents that contain sulfur or chlorine.

- When silver items are not being worked, keep them sealed in a plastic bag with an anti-tarnish strip. Remove as much air from bag as possible.

- Have workers wear cotton gloves to handle finished goods. (If you search the Rio website for "cotton gloves" you will see an example.) Rubber contains sulfur, so rubber finger cots can promote tarnish.

Moving forward, we would like you to E-coat these sterling department store styles. Some will be no problem, like H347S and H349S. Beaded hoops may be troublesome depending on the bead material. Please take a look at the attached list of styles and let me know your recommendations of what can be E-coated. I would like you to do an E-coat test on all of the beaded earrings on this list. Let me know if I need to send you the beads. Please provide updated quotes of these styles that include the price of E-coat.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.