I think everyone sees the end result of silver. Highly polished, shining, reflecting and looking ready to wear. It takes a lot of work to get to to that stage. Firstly you need to solder the jewellery, pickle it, file it and finally polish. Here is a photo of exactly how messy this process is and gives you an idea of how silver looks before the shine. You can see why nail polish and long nails are not necessary!
