The very tarnished pair of earrings in the picture above went from dingy and dark to sparkling and bright.

It’s easy to remove the tarnish, all you need is aluminum foil, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of baking soda, boiling water and a glass bowl.

Boil your water, gently crumple foil to fit bottom of bowl. Lay silver on top of foil. If there is more than one piece make sure the pieces touch. Pour boiling water into bowl to cover silver pieces. Add baking soda and salt all at once. It will bubble and steam, there might be a momentary strange odor. The tarnish will bubble off of the silver.

My earrings were heavily tarnished so I repeated the process. I also buffed off a few leftover specks of tarnish with white toothpaste.

This is an environmentally safe way to clean tarnish from silver. It is also a fun experiment for children to watch.