About our Seaglass
Collecting seaglass can give you a little insight into how people lived years ago.
You can find all types of glass, both industrial and glass used for homeware. There are types of glass only found in certain places. For example milk glass, safety glass and pyrex glass are usually found near the factories that produced, them or in redeveloped coastal areas. You can sometimes see patterns or words on the glass, and occasionally you can trace the company that used or produced them. Glass items discarded long ago get broken over time in the sea. The tide and waves tumble the glass in among the pebbles and sand to give it a beautiful frosted look. It smooths out the broken edges over many years. It is estimated that a good rounded piece takes a minimum of 30 years. Essentially it is fair to say, seaglass is litter.
You can find all types of glass, both industrial and glass used for homeware. There are types of glass only found in certain places. For example milk glass, safety glass and pyrex glass are usually found near the factories that produced, them or in redeveloped coastal areas. You can sometimes see patterns or words on the glass, and occasionally you can trace the company that used or produced them. Glass items discarded long ago get broken over time in the sea. The tide and waves tumble the glass in among the pebbles and sand to give it a beautiful frosted look. It smooths out the broken edges over many years. It is estimated that a good rounded piece takes a minimum of 30 years. Essentially it is fair to say, seaglass is litter.
The range of colours we find are endless, as glass has been used in variety of items over the years. We as jewellery makers particularly seek bright colours, especially blues, as they are very popular. A lot of the dark blues, like cobolt blue, were popular in the Victorian Age, so are rare and hard to find now. The rarest colours in our experience are reds, blues, purples, oranges, pinks and yellows. The most common are green, amber, white and a pale blue/green, we like to call seafoam.
Glass bottle stoppers are great to find. They were used to seal the top of a bottle, much like corks, but made of glass. They were used by chemists, and in expensive luxury goods. They quite often have lost their tops and may survive as they are already rounded, and this makes them less susceptible to breaking and chipping as they tumble in the sea.
We love to find marbles! They retain their beautiful round shape even after years in the sea.
You may remember different types of marbles from your childhood. I love to visualize these being played with by small girls and boys many years ago. They get a beautiful sea frosting so can sometimes be hard to see the pattern inside.
The clearer marbles I have always believed to have come out of bottles as a type of seal. But there are other theories, one is that these would have been used for ballast in ships, so may have been washed up from ship wrecks, or been thrown overboard by a sailors.
You may remember different types of marbles from your childhood. I love to visualize these being played with by small girls and boys many years ago. They get a beautiful sea frosting so can sometimes be hard to see the pattern inside.
The clearer marbles I have always believed to have come out of bottles as a type of seal. But there are other theories, one is that these would have been used for ballast in ships, so may have been washed up from ship wrecks, or been thrown overboard by a sailors.
We have to travel a long way to collect our ‘end of day’ glass. We visit a beach in County Durham, that used to have a glass factory by it. The factory was active between 1853 and 1921, so the glass we find now could be well in excess of 100 years old.. This type of glass is Artisan Glass that could have been produced at the end of the working day. One suggestion is that it was done in the workers own time, for their own use, or to practice their skills with left over glass that otherwise would be thrown away. Also when the factory was in use and when it closed in the 1920's, they dumped a lot of glass in the sea. It was later demolished in the 1950's. The glass is distinctive by its multiple layers of colour. It is very sought after for making jewellery, and is becoming quite rare. The best time for us to find seaglass is when the tide is going out, especially if there have been some recent storms.
All seaglass is unique as each piece is tumbled in different ways in the sea. They retain marks and dents that show their history and make them truly individual, this in turn makes all our seaglass jewellery special and one of a kind item.
All seaglass is unique as each piece is tumbled in different ways in the sea. They retain marks and dents that show their history and make them truly individual, this in turn makes all our seaglass jewellery special and one of a kind item.