July 2013 – Genuine Sea Glass Jewelry

An “Eye” for Sea Glass

I was introduced to sea glass by someone who had been introduced to it by someone where she worked. This person was then VERY lucky when she met a sea glasser who showed her a good sea glassing spot, which she then shared with me. I guess the real beauty of sea glassing is when we share it with others.

I have had an opportunity to introduce several people to sea glassing now. Not only has it been a lot of fun, I have learned something interesting too.

How many pieces of sea glass do you see in this picture?

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The Joy of Sea Glassing – River Glass & Pottery Finds

I love sea glassing. If you read this blog, you already know that. I find it a wonderful way to spend a few hours on a beautiful day, and on a not so beautiful day. Last week I had an opportunity to go sea glassing to a new spot and then to one of my favorite spots. The day was sunny and not humid (a rare day in Baltimore in late July indeed).

The water was clear and shallow in both areas which made the searching even that much more fun. I had on shorts and my boating sneakers that dry quickly, so wading in deeper water wasn’t a problem. Actually I love to wade in the river, it reminds me of my childhood spent playing in the Gunpowder River.

I was able to find some really neat items in both spots.

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Treasure Found While Searching for Sea Glass – Frozen Charlotte

This is the most favorite bit of history I’ve learned about one of my wonderful finds. I found this treasure while sea glassing over a year ago.

When I started doing research I found out that these dolls are known as “Frozen Charlotte” dolls and are forever associated with a very serious warning for young women of the era.

This is my find, a small torso just 1 1/4″ long.

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Techniques to Create Sea Glass Pendants

The most common type of sea glass jewelry for sale is a sea glass pendant. It is the first type of sea glass jewelry that I created. It’s easy to see why this is usually the first type of jewelry crafters make. First reason is that the size of most pieces of sea glass is a perfect size to create a pendant, be it small, medium or large. It’s also the easiest piece for a beginner to create because it doesn’t require any drilling or special tools. A beautiful pendant can be created with a simple wire wrap.

This is a sea glass pendant I created fairly early on. This beautiful piece is the remnant of a Pepsi-Cola bottle. I used a simple wire wrapping technique, securing it both horizontally and vertically. I remember the fair where I sold this piece. When I thanked the customer for her purchase she replied “thanks for wrapping it!”

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Sea Glass Beaches – Where to Find Treasures

Every sea glass collector dreams of the perfect sea glass beaches. For me, this would be a beach that is covered with beautiful large and colorful pieces of English multis sea glass, smooth and cool under my feet, just waiting for me to pick them up. That could never be you say? Well, you’re right, but only the part about the glass being English Multis. There is one beach that looks like it could be everyone’s idea of a perfect sea glass beach, that is a beach in Murano, Italy. Of course, Murano has a glass making history that dates back thousands of years and is still very active in glass making today.

This picture is one of a glass beach in Murano, Italy.

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Sea Glass Art Ideas

I love creating sea glass jewelry and art. Actually, I think that the two are the same, some may not. Sea glass can be incorporated not only into jewelry but into all types of art. If you are looking for a sea glass gifts make sure you do a search for sea glass art.

If you are lucky enough to live near a beach or a river where you can search for sea glass what you will quickly find is that it all isn’t pefectly smoothed and rounded, as might be the impression you are left with if you do a search online for sea glass.

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Blue Sea Glass – The Ultimate Find

Ahh, blue sea glass. Called the Sapphire of the sea. An elusive sea glass color, the color everyone wants to find, but few do. One thing I learned when I started working with sea glass is that a lot of the value of sea glass is based on rarity of color as well as how perfectly frosted and smoothed it is. Blue, especially dark cobalt blue, is one of the most coveted blue sea glass colors. It is said that 1 out of 300 pieces found will be cobalt blue sea glass.

This is an amazing piece of cobalt blue sea glass that was waiting for me on the beach. Beautifully smoothed. How lucky!

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Beachcombing Pleasures

I have been beach combing since I was a child. I grew up on Long Island, New York. My Dad worked a night shift and when he got home in the morning during the summertime we’d head to the beach. He’d sleep, and my Mom would wake him every couple of hours and tell him to roll over. We played, and played and played. And the beaches we spent our days on were fabulous.

These are just two of the amazing shells I found recently in the Exuma, Bahamas. The larger shell on the right is just one inch long.

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How to Start Creating Sea Glass Jewelry

I really enjoy creating sea glass jewelry. I consider it the icing on the cake of my sea glassing hobby. How lucky and I to be able to find the beautiful sea glass (or, as is the case with beautiful English Seaham Beach glass, purchase it) and then be able to “play” with it and then sell it? VERY lucky! It is also fun to look back over the course of a short year and a half and see how my styles and techniques have changed and improved.

When I started creating jewelry I used locally found sea glass and findings from local craft shops like Michael’s and A.C. Moore. This is exactly how my journey should have started.

Sea glassing was new to me. I hadn’t paid much attention to sea glass before even though I’d seen it used in jewelry in shops in places like Hatteras, North Carolina and Rock Hall, Maryland. I was shown a sea glassing area by someone I knew who had been shown the area by someone she met. It was a place on a river that was full of sea glass and pottery. I picked up each and every piece I saw and I wanted to start creating jewelry. But how to start?

A beautiful piece of locally found sea glass with a simple gold tone wire wrap. Stunning.

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Cataloging Sea Glass & Sea Pottery Finds

When I first started collecting sea glass and sea pottery I didn’t do any type of sorting. Once I had cleaned it I threw all the glass into a zip lock bag. I didn’t even sort out by color. It didn’t matter to me. I was brand new to sea glassing and so totally enamored with it the only thing that mattered was picking up as much sea glass as I could (that’s a story for another blog). It wasn’t until I started to get serious about creating sea glass jewelry that I knew I had to take the time to sort my finds.

This is a beautiful pendant made from a piece of a Flow-Blue Pottery plate.

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