The Essential Guide to Wish Pearls (Everything You've Never Been Told)

Posted by Alanna Sharp on 2018 Sep 20th

Not sure if Wish Pearls are worth your investment? Curious as to how we cultivate these incredible little gems? Want to know what to expect when you buy a wish pearl kit?

Well, we want to answer those questions for you. Whether you want to give a friend a surprise pearl necklace or are passionate about unique jewelry, wish pearls are the perfect solution. Let’s dive into what makes wish pearls so damn amazing and what you can expect when you harvest your own pearl from an unopened oyster shell with our kits.

What are Wish Pearls?

At the Wish Pearl, we sell freshwater wish pearl jewelry ready to wear with their own pendant and chain. The jewelry is made from sterling silver, sterling silver rose gold or silver plated. Our customers adore the pendants we send and of course, they enjoy the genuine pearl inside of the real oyster. All you have to do is pop open the packaging to enjoy your surprise pearl.

Our Wish Pearl Necklace Gift Set has its own impregnated mollusk safely tucked away in a protective case. Once you receive your wish pearl, you make a wish (hence the name) and open the mollusk.

How Pearls are Cultivated

cultivation

Contrary to what you may have heard, wish pearls are cultivated in farms, but that doesn’t make them less high quality than those found in the wild. In fact, the process from cultivation to packaging is complex and detailed. Here’s what you might not know about your wish pearl necklace and where it all started.

Step 1: Cultivation

The pearls in each oyster have a unique quantity of pearls. The quantity of pearls is dependent on the growing

pearls cultivation

conditions. Each oyster, however, requires at least 2 to 3 years to grow to maturity. Larger pearls take longer to grow upwards of 7 years.Once they are fully mature, workers manually remove the freshwater pearls from their shells.


Step 2: Selection of Different Size Pearls

After the pearls are removed from their shells, they are filtered by size, again by hand, to determine the best sizes for our Wish Pearl kits.


Step 3: Pearls are Cleaned and Polished

Using manual and machine processes, workers carefully clean and polish each individual pearl to guarantee they shine brightly from the moment you open them. After polishing, they are cleaned a second time them to finalize the process.


Step 4: Pearls are Dried

After they’re cleaned, they are dried with a drying machine that doesn’t break or crack the pearls. This prepares them for the next step in the process.


Step 5: Drilling Holes into Pearls

Our pearls are not drilled as they are inserted into cage type pendants. However if you wish to have a hold drilled into them, this is when it would be done.

Contrary to popular belief, wish pearls can have holes drilled into them. In fact, you can have a dyed wish pearl with a hole in it as long as you specify that is what you’re looking for. Purchasing a pearl that has a hole drilled into it before it is dyed won’t affect the color or the pearl quality. Remember, if you want a hole in your pearl, be sure to select one that has had one drilled into it before it is dyed.


Step 6: Pearls are Carefully Dyed Various Colors

Our pearls are dyed countless colors, from blues to bright reds to black and metallic color, you can getthem in any color you like!

dyed pearls


Step 7: Pearls are Inserted into Smaller Mollusks

Our pearls are grafted into an oyster,different from the original one it grew in. The two species used for our pearls are called hyriopsis cumungii or pinctada martensii. They are then vacuumed sealed or canned and shipped off to our warehouses, waiting for you!

mollusks

Wish Pearl Pearls Grow in Mollusks & Do Produce Certain Colors Naturally

In addition to the previous dyed colors we offer with our wish pearl kits, you can also choose from natural freshwater colors that include white, pink, and lavender. That’s right, oysters make their own colors.

Best Jewelry for Wish Pearls

Once you’ve received your wish pearl kit, you might be wondering how to turn it into a gorgeous piece of jewelry.

Wish pearls look great in locket style pendants. For pearls that don’t have holes drilled into them, pendants make the perfect ‘cage’ to house pearls.

Another important point is that while many believe that wish pearl kits only come in silver plated pendants and chains, our wish pearl necklace jewelry also come in either sterling silver or sterling rose gold metals. They’re authentic and valuable.

We love the way our pearls look with sterling silver in particular, since the silver perfectly highlights the beauty of natural pearls. Check out our selection of sterling silver pendants here to see what we mean!

Want your own wish pearl kit? If so, feel free to browse our selection and if you have any questions about our pearls, please feel free to contact us directly.