Pearl Jewellery

Pearls are some of the most interesting and unique gems on the market.  Because each type of pearl forms in a specific oyster or mussel in a certain location, there are several different varieties, and each has it's own appearance and characteristics.

Pearls of all types form as a reaction to an irritant inside the shell of mollusks like oysters and freshwater mussels.  The mollusk reacts to the irritation by secreting a substance known as nacre, which is also used in shell building.  In time the nacre builds up to form a pearl.  When this happens in nature, a natural pearl is formed.  When a technician introduces an irritant into the shell of an oyster or mussel, however, the resulting pearl is referred to as cultured.

At Wicked Willie's Jewellery we have specialised for many years in freshwater pearls, which are seeded using soft tissue mantle meaning the pearls are almost 100% solid nacre unlike cultured salt water pearls which are seeded with a round bead of varying sizes and harvested when just a few millimetres of nacre has formed around the seed.  This makes them susceptible to the nacre peeling off from exposure to perfumes, hair sprays and other chemicals and also just from rubbing together.  This is not a problem with freshwater pearls.

We stock a range of freshwater pearl necklaces, bracelets, pendants, earrings and rings in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours.  

We also stock Mabe Pearls which are a blistered half pearl,  Biwa Pearls in our Special Concepts Pearl Collection, and a recent addition to the freshwater pearl family, the Edison "Explosion" Pearls which are large, baroque, bead seeded freshwater pearls.  More information about these other forms of freshwater pearls can be found on their collection pages.

Enjoy browsing our Pearl Jewellery Collection and don't forget you can contact us direct for any special orders.