Sea glass from a Long Island beach Photo by Mark Epstein |
Sea glass
is found on all the beaches in the world on oceans, bays, rivers, and even on
large lakes where it has been tumbled or smoothed by the action of waves, running
water and sand that creates smooth, frosted pieces of glass in a process akin
to tumbling gemstones. These pieces of glass or often used for making handmade
Jewelry.
Many people consider combing the shorelines for sea glass as
a hobby to either simply collect, or make into jewelry as well as other
decorative objects from their finds.
Locations:
See glass is something that is found all over the world but
there are some areas where it is more apt to collect than others. Among these
places are the beaches of the northeastern United
States , California ,
northwest England ,
Mexico , Hawaii ,
Puerto Rico , Nova Scotia ,
Australia , Italy ,
and southern Spain .
See glass is also found on the beaches of many of the largely to the world like
the Great Lakes of North America, the Caspian Sea and other large in land areas
of freshwater including the larger rivers. Many pieces of sea glass have their
origin in the glass floats
that are used by fishermen at the top of their nets. Most other pieces of sea
glass are from broken bottles. In this last category you can also include
broken pottery, and ceramics. Most of the sea glass is found during periods of
low tide and especially a low tide after a large storm.
Many pieces of sea glass having their origin in inland
waterways carries on it and embossed lettering that makes tracing its origins
much easier than that found in the ocean. Because there are shards of glass
broken for larger objects such as bottles or jars you can find sea glass that
may be frosted on one side, and shiny on the other. Probably the reason for
this they are pieces of a larger object that of the broken off while the object
was still embedded in sand or mud that are being slowly exposed to the action of
waves.
Colors:
Among all the different colors of sea glass the rarest is
red, cobalt blue glass is also very rare. The most common colors that are found
are clear, Kelly green and brown. Although sea glass can have its origin in
anything that has been made from glass most sea glass comes from broken bottles
many of which held alcoholic beverages or soda. The rarest colors of all
however are great, pink, teal, black, very dark olive green, yellow turquoise,
red or from nautical lights that often tell the tale of the shipwreck somewhere
on the world's oceans. You are apt to find one piece of glass in these colors
for every 10,000 pieces of ordinary glass you find.
The Hobby
In many places especially in North America
collecting sea glass also includes collecting sea shells, fossils or stones.
There is even an association of collectors of sea glass called North American Sea glass Association
that publishes a monthly newsletter about the hobby.
Artificial Sea Glass:
Real sea glass is now becoming harder to find for a number
of reasons; there are more people searching for it; many glass items have been
replaced by the use of plastic; and littering is increasingly discouraged for
environmental reasons.
Many artisans have taken advantage of this situation by
tumbling poorer pieces of sea glass shards creating what is called
“twice-tossed” glass. Other people are making artificial sea glass engine
colors that they call “craft glass” from ordinary pieces of broken glass. This
kind of artificial sea glass meets the demand from crafters because it is
available at a cheaper price and a wider range of colors.
For many collectors of sea glass the real issue is honesty
about the source from where the glass came.
References:
Sea Glass, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_glass
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