Topic: How should I clean this carnival glass vase?

[Angela B]

I have just received this vase in the post, and it is very dirty. I have washed it in warm soapy water but the residue on the surface seems to be fairly ingrained and I am afraid to scrub it too hard in case the carnival treatment comes off.
I'd be very grateful for some advice from an expert. What can bring off this thick layer of what seems to be dirt especially around the base, where there is a pattern you can barely see.

[Bernard C]

Angela — If ordinary household detergent won't shift it, try an overnight soak in good old-fashioned washing soda sloution — cheap and, in my experience, usually successful.   I've used it on Walsh Mother-of-Pearl and Iridescent with no damage to the iridescence.   If that doesn't work try a soak in baking soda solution.    There are high strength cleaners available, but I wouldn't like to try them without authoritative advice.   Same applies to denture cleaners.   I presume that as a glassie you have a huge array of appropriate brushes, cloths, and other cleaning equipment.

Bernard C. 

[Tony H]

Hi Angela

I soak overnight all my glass when I get them home in NapiSan you can get it from most supermarkets, even carnival glass, works wonders.

Tony H in NZ

[Glen]

Angela - Bernard's and Tony's suggestions sound like very good ones. I have used a weak solution of "Comet" (USA product, so possibly not available) for very dirty items to good effect.

It's not easy to damage iridescence with normal cleaning - the only way you could be sure of damaging the iridescence would be if you took a coarse metal scouring pad to it and scrubbed....really HARD. So don't do that!

It is quite possible though, that the iridescence of your Hand vase is already a bit spotty under the ingrained dirt. Indian Carnival is not consistent in quality. The early Jain items are almost always beautifully iridised, but the output of various other (later) makers appear (based on my observations) to be less than consistent and possibly lacking in quality control.

Glen

[josordoni]

I have used the bathroom cleaners with limescale remover on carnival glass to remove white residue with success.  The one I use is Lidl's bathroom cleaner.  I think any of the proprietory cleaners should work - but I don't leave it on for very long, I rinse after a couple of minutes and then repeat if need be. 

[Angela B]

Many thanks for all the suggestions. I used the one that was easiest to find, Napisan (not that we have any nappies here but its good for laundry). And wow, it has come up nice. This is not a very good picture because it was taken in artificial light. But it really is impressive now.
The hardest part was cleaning the inside - from which I have recovered a button, some tinfoil wrapped around something that had disintegrated, two pieces of metal (possibly off a pen) and lots of black and brown stuff that looked like rust!
Ah well, it does look nice now. And thank you so much for the advice.

[Lustrousstone]

Cor, that scrubbed up nice 

[Anne]

Crumbs, didn't it just! Angela that's lovely, you'd not believe it was the same piece, would you?  (I'm adding NapiSan to my shopping list if it works that well... thanks Tony!)

[Angela B]

Here are a couple of better pictures - taken in the daylight.
I still haven't got the inside of the base really clean but its a lot better.
Just thought I'd mention that I really appreciated Glen's comment on damaging carnival glass - I would have been very uncertain about applying some of these remedies to my precious new purchase if she hadn't said it would be alright. I will remember not to scrub with a scouring pad!
And thank you to everyone for the advice.

[Angela B]

2nd picture