Sea Glass: Art Made by Man and Nature

Also known as Mermaids’ Tears, Beach Glass, Ocean Glass, and Trash Glass

Julia Dragomirescu©

2014

Worn by waves, recycled by sea, tossed on shores, broken

Product of both nature & man Bottles, jars, glass thrown away/from shipwrecks

are tumbled by bodies of water to form colorful gems of shore

Vanishing due to use of plastics & recycling Glass from ocean = sea glass, glass from fresh

water sources = beach glass

What Is Sea Glass?

Wherever you find people & water you will find these sea glass gems!

Walking along shoreline, look around pebbles, shells & other flotsam bits & pieces

Beach glass found on rivers, lake shorelines & bays The more current/wave action, more likely to find smooth

top quality sea glass Higher water PH & rockier beach glass will age (become

smoother) faster & better

Where Do You Find Sea Glass?

Traditional gems (diamonds, opals, emeralds) made by nature, refined by man

Sea glass originally made by man (bottles, jars, containers) refined by nature to become smooth frosty beach found gems

Nature is big rock tumbler recycling our pollution!

Can take 7-10 years in constant surf environment to make sea glass

History and Journey

Authentic piece has no shiny spots, well frosted, has smooth tactile edges

Before mid 1960’s, everything came in glass bottles or jars

Plastic was product of future, recycling did not exist

Coastal areas & islands, trash collection developed later on, residents buried trash in sand or tossed it in ocean

Famous places: northeast United States, Bermuda, California, Scotland, northwest England, Hawaii, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia, Australia, Italy, southern Spain

Best times to find sea glass: during spring tides perigean (occurs three/four times a year when Moon’s perigee [closest point to Earth during 28-day elliptical orbit] coincides w/ spring tide [Earth, Sun, Moon nearly aligned every two weeks]) & proxigean as well as first low tide after storm

Sea Glass Around the World

Most sea glass comes from bottles, as well as jars, plates, windows, windshields, ceramics, sea pottery

Most common: kelly green, brown, white (clear); come from beer, juice & soft drink bottles, white comes from clear plates, glasses, windshield, windows

Uncommon: jade, amber (from whiskey, medicine, spirits, early bleach bottles), golden amber, amberina (spirit bottles, made from 1883-1900, made by mixing compound [w/ gold] into glass & reheating it, left to cool resulting in different colour)

Multi-coloured Palette

Uncommon: lime green (soda bottles from ’60s),

forest green & ice/soft blue (from soda,

medicine, ink bottles, & fruit jars from late 19th

to early 20th centuries, windows, windshields)

Very uncommon: purple, citron, opaque white

(milk glass), cobalt, cornflower blue (early Milk of

Magnesia, poison bottles, artwork) & aqua (Ball

Mason jars)

Extremely rare: gray, pink (Great Depression

plates), teal (Mateus wine bottles), black (older,

very dark olive green), yellow (1930s Vaseline

containers), turquoise (tableware, art glass), red

(Schlitz bottles, car tail lights, dinnerware,

nautical lights), orange (least common, found

once in 10,000 pieces)

Old black glass bottles that had iron slag added during production to increase strength & opaqueness were sometimes broken in shipment, were jettisoned at beachside wharf upon landfall

Contained wine, gin, whiskey, medicines & liquids subject to light damage, refilled w/ local spirits, herbal tinctures, extracts, medicinals

Medicines & liquor sold in green bottles, olive green, brown & cobalt for gin, whiskey was green & brown bottles

The liquor bottles for sea shipment were square to better utilize space in shipping crates; poisons in blue bottles.

Modern correlations: brown beer bottles, Coca Cola green glass bottles

Antique Black Sea Glass

Places to find: slave trading ports, former colonial ports in slave-molasses-rum triangle, former colonial locations w/ sea trade routes & motherland shipping ports

First man made glass in Jamaica arrived w/ Christopher Columbus on 2nd voyage when he thought island was Spain in 1494

Landed at Dry Harbor, Discovery Bay on the north coast, glass on board may or may not have become sea glass is part of romance & wonder of beachcombing

Black glass is green/brown when held to light, appears black to unaided eye

Weathering & oxidation, together w/ UV light interacting w/ metallic oxides & chemicals in glass & seawater affects colour of sea glass over long exposure & time frames

Resembles extrusive igneous rock basalt, weathered black obsidian, natural black volcanic glass

• Gas bubbles are trapped in old glass, impurities and irregularities in original bottles were common & indicator of age

Beachcombing: activity that consists of an individual "combing" (searching) beach & intertidal zone, looking for things of interest or value

Fill decorative jars w/ collections, can trace shard's origin, artisans make jewelry

Some collectors create works of art by putting them in cement to create mosaic

Sea Glass As a Hobby

Activity offers natural prescription to maintain emotional, physical, spiritual health

Use knowledge of how storms, geography, ocean currents, seasonal events determine arrival & exposure of rare finds

Eco-conservation: do not kill mollusks for shells, dig holes in sand, gouge cliff faces for fossils/reefs for coral

Stewards of seashore, working w/ government agencies to monitor shore erosion, dumping & pollution, reef & cliff damage

Beachcombers

Art sea glass: originated as art glass, was decorative household item that was broken, discarded into sea, extremely rare

Lundberg art: Lundberg Studios: premier art glass manufacturing company located in Davenport, California founded by James Lundberg, in 1970; created vases, scent bottles, paperweights, lighting; pieces found there: millefiori rods, iridescent glass, multi-colour glass

Seaham art: region In County Durham, byproduct of glass making & wastes, includes fisheye/pontil sea glass, colours combined by ACCIDENT waste tossed into sea (exceptions: flash glass used for window making & friggers - pieces made to practice glass makers skill)

Types of Glass

Blown glass: shaping of glass by blowing air through hollow rod into centre of molten glass gather, does not have seems, has pontil scar

Bolder’s: massive size, very round, largest weighs over 8 pounds, started as lumps of glass cleaned from kilns

Bonfire (campfire/trash fire): melted in fire, smoothed by sea, features: mixed colors, internal debris, bumpy texture

Bottle glass: originating from old bottles (and jars), most prevalent

Bubbles: smaller version of Bolder’s, almost perfectly round, mainly found in Seaham England, started as lumps of scrap glass

Cane: colour rods wrapped around each other creating unique color patterns

Pattern sea glass: bear distinctive pattern, markings include product names & decorative patterning

Ridged Sea Glass: tops of old bottles & jars that used threaded tops

Slag glass: leftover product of glassmaking industry

True end of day (spatter): object made w/ two or more colors swirled together as seen in glassware; refers to workers in factories combining small leftover batches of glass at end of day to avoid wasting costly materials

Curvature: indicates piece was item such as bottle/jar

Embossing: used widely in commercial products before use of printed labels, product name molded w/ glass bottle, window pieces that had texture, gives clue to age & origin

Fish eyes (pontil): used to describe discarded punty tips from glass making industry

Sea Glass Terminology

Frost: feature that indicates authenticity, happens when glass has been in water for long periods of time, water leaches out soda & lime in glass, creating white "frost"

Gemballs: round pieces of sea glass Hydration: part of aging process where

hydrogen ions in water replace sodium ions/soda in glass resulting in sodium hydroxide

Kickups (push up): steep rise/pushed-up portion of base, done primarily for strength enhancing, stability, & content sedimentation, modern: bottoms of champagne & wine bottles, thickness can determine age

Marbles: from children's toys, ballast for ships, spray paint can marbles, Codd Bottle closures, common: machine made cats eye marbles, rarest: handmade Onionskin/Swirl Core marbles

Milli/Millefiori: Italian for "thousand flowers," used to describe mosaic glass objects

Pores: under microscope resemble small "C" shapes, result of rocks, sand & gravel scouring surface of aging hydrated glass

Pontil Pieces (fish eyes): tip glass part of pontil/punty rod, when product was finished being blown/molded, rod slightly pulled & snapped off, color inside of fisheyes show how outside of glass cooled yet inside continued to stretch

Pitting: result of years of tumbling in water, gravel & sand, always irregular sizes, heavier pitting (rocky beaches) indicates age & environment

Punty (pontil rod): metal rod used in glassmaking to "gather" molten glass from glass kiln for blowing/molding, pontil scars visible on many handmade glass objects

Rarity: color, size, condition, shape, grade, frost, thickness, bubbles, embossing, source indicators

Rounds: pieces that were bottoms of bottles

Shard: used to refer to piece of sea glass Stoppers: glass bottle/apothecary stoppers

used before commercial bottle closures, most common is seafoam green color used in Heinz 57 sauce

Whimsies (friggers): non-production pieces that glass makers used to practice their trade, include portions of glass canes, paperweights/dumps, rolling pins, pipes, figurines, sock darners, gavels, doorstops

Reasons: more beachcombers looking for sea glass, littering has increased, rarer to find

Artisans/crafters tumble newer pieces to create "twice-tossed" glass, others create artificial sea glass, "craft glass", from ordinary glass pieces using rock tumbler

Cons: chunkier, lacks provenance, technical ways (long-term exposure to water conditions creates etched surface on glass that cannot be duplicated artificially)

Pros: cheaper, wider range of colours Real: has frosty, almost powdery texture; "C" shaped

design on outside, not rounded; artificial lacks all these properties

Imitations or Artificial Sea Glass

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