Sea Glass CreationsByRobin

Summertime Fun at the Beach

2011-06-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been quite awhile since my last blog entry...but I guess that's a good thing.
It must mean I've been spending a lot of time on the beach, doing what I love- searching for sea glass.

For those that are wondering what hunting for beach glass is about, or just looking for a fun & eco friendly summertime hobby, check out this article about what I plan on doing this summer...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8089711/fun_in_the_sun_at_the_beach.html?cat=24

Maybe I'll see you on the beach....enjoy!

Meet and Greet at Jersey Made Tonight 12-17

2010-12-17T05:25:00.000-08:00

If you are still looking for a gift for a hard to buy for family member, friend, work mate, and they love the beach/ocean, then come on down to Jersey Made tomorrow night!
I will have a portion of my sea glass collection with me, along with wire to wrap pendants, and a few sterling silver chains.

Or you can bring a piece of sea glass and I'll create a custom wrap for you. I also have several new jewelry creations that I will be bringing with me, along with some pre-drilled pieces of sea glass, that can be used to create earrings, or bracelets.

Jersey-Made is located in the Mill Race Village section of Mount Holly, NJ and the meet and greet is scheduled tomorrow, Friday December 17th, from 5pm- 9pm. Stop in and talk sea-glassing and bring your prize "finds". We would love to hear your stories!

Hope to see you tonight!

R

Finally...I Found a What I Needed to Complete a Piece!

2010-07-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

Making jewelry is all about visual appeal and that makes working with sea glass a challenge at times. You can only use what the tides bring you... the price is right, but you don't have many choices when it comes to shape and color.

About 2 years ago, I found a beautiful cobalt blue piece of sea glass. The smooth, rounded edges were quite unusual for the Jersey shore, and I assumed the piece has spent decades, and decades tumbling around the surf before presenting itself one cold winter morning. When I returned home that morning, I had a "creative vision" of what I wanted to make with this rare NJ find, so I set it aside, and began going through my collection to start gathering similar sized pieces that would be used in the creation.
My idea was for a necklace, one that would make for a great early summer/ 4th of July piece of summer bling... a great patriotic piece that would catch people's eye.

Of course, finding the perfect red piece of sea glass would be a challenge. Red sea glass is the 2nd rarest of sea glass colors and with the exception of a reddish-pinkish piece my DH found 4 summers ago, I haven't even heard of anyone coming across a red in NJ for many years.

So my gorgeous cobalt sat in a small gift box, with the similar sized white pieces I plan to use in the creation of the necklace. It sat waiting for the perfect red. After the 4th of July, 2009 passed, the pieces sat waiting for any similar size piece of red...perfect, not perfect.

With the passing of another year's fireworks, and another 4th of July celebration, I almost forgot about my "vision". That is until I came across a fellow collector with a couple pieces of red sea glass...and one was so similar in size to what I needed to complete my vision.

After much going back and forth as to what it would take for me to own the needed red, it finally came to fruition... I would trade Juanita a couple of aqua blues, and yellows AND wrap a couple of her special pieces to acquire the red (and a few pendant sized pieces of various colors)to finish my "vision".

The problem with my vision is this piece is it's not like the "greatest piece of jewelry" I've ever created. Actually the problem is my love for cobalt blue pieces, and when I found this well-rounded piece of cobalt blue on my favorite stretch of beach, I had to create something incredible with it...it screamed to me that I needed to make something great with this rare find.

And that's the problem with working with sea glass and having creative visions. You have your idea of what you want to do, and the ocean has her idea of what she's willing to give you and I'm sure she laughed loudly when she saw me coming. Here's that women looking for a red...as if! LOL

But we both know that the search was both fun (and a little frustrating)and deep down, I know that it would have been much more satisfying if I could have located the red laying in the surf one day. But had that been the case, I would be keeping the necklace for myself : )

Now it's time to hold my breathe while my DH drills small holes in the sea glass... I guess my vision isn't finished just yet.

til next time... and hopefully an image of the finished piece....
R

Is Blue The Most Popular Sea Glass Color?

2010-06-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Orange is the rarest, followed by the color of love....Red. Many people love the earthier colors green and brown. But are the shades of blue, the most popular of sea glass colors?

When it comes to jewelry, it is virtually impossible to keep jewelry made with cornflower blue sea glass or cobalt blue sea glass in stock. No matter how many gorgeous pieces of teals, pinks or greens I have on my display, it's the deep blue pieces that receive the biggest oohs & aahs. A knowledgeable sea glasser will often jump at a reasonably priced red piece of sea glass jewelry, especially if it is close to being shaped like a heart. The in-the-know customer will also find it hard to pass by a flawless, dark teal piece... but there is something about the blues. They will examine every piece of blue on the table and the shade doesn't matter. From aqua to turquoise and every shade in between, almost always, not one blue goes untouched.

Amazingly, it doesn't matter how much or little the potential buyer knows about sea glass, they see the blues and if it's within their budget, they have to have them. (and in pre-recession days, it didn't have to be within their budget...they wanted it, whatever the price!)

(At this point of the this blog entry, I took a look at my Etsy shop... 4 of my last 7 Etsy sales have been blue pieces of sea glass jewelry. 2 aquas, and 2 cobalts.)

My personal sea glass jewelry collection had been comprised of mostly teals, olive & kelly greens, and a brown or two. I recently added my first blue to my collection... a gorgeous English cobalt blue necklace (which I've been wearing pretty much exclusively every day for the last 2 weeks)

As much as I always hope to find an elusive orange or red piece of sea glass on the beach, I do get excited when I spot a dark blue piece sitting in the sand. There is something about seeing a wet piece of cobalt blue sea glass, glistening in the sun, laying in the sand. I just know that if it is a piece that is jewelry-quality, it's already as good as sold.

Unless I decide to add a 2nd blue piece of sea glass jewelry to my personal collection.... after all, there is just something about those blues!

I hope you enjoy the images... but they aren't mine any longer. They have all found new homes recently.

til next time...
R

Sea Glass Collectors- A different breed...

2010-05-10T05:14:00.000-07:00

I've been making jewelry for several years, first starting off with commercial glass beads, before I transitioned into authentic sea glass jewelry. And I have to admit, sea glass jewelry makers (and sea glassers as a whole) are a different breed.

For the most part, I have yet to meet several of the collectors /jewelry makers that I've had business transactions with, as most of these transactions have been via the internet. The same goes with many of the collectors that I've chatted with...it's almost always a internet relationship.

But in every single case, I have never come across the competitiveness that I found in several other crafting mediums. Instead, the sea glassing community seems to enjoy sharing info with fellow collectors...and a chance meeting with a fellow collector last weekend was no different.

I went to a craft fair, hoping to come across a husband and wife team of collectors. The wife, is a jewelry designer, specializing in sea glass. The husband is well known around the sea glass jewelry makers as "Bill the Drill" for his drill-press set-up, and how he has the drilling process down to a science.

I came across Bill the Drill and had my DH introduce himself and speak with Bill about his drill-press, while I spoke with his wife Virginia, about sea glass collecting, sharing secret locations, and talking about sterling silver suppliers (and of course we shared our favorite suppliers, looking to get the best price)

When I turned around to see how my DH was doing, I found Bill inviting him to sit down and drill a few holes into a piece of sea glass! How cool is that? Here's a gentleman that is sought out for his drilling expertise, allowing my hubby (who does all of my drilling for me) to try out his system...at a show!

I don't know why I'm still surprised by these occurrences with sea glass collectors, but these friendly people continue to make me happy that my family and I share the love of the ocean, and more specifically, an affection for how the ocean takes a piece of discarded man-made trash and turns it into something beautiful.

Maybe sea glass does contain magical powers...it seems that everyone that shares the love of sea glass is, well, a different breed...a very special different breed!

Sea Glass Jewelry- Which Sells Better Earrings vs Necklaces

2010-04-05T04:40:00.000-07:00

I came across a thread in the business forum on Etsy.com about what sold better for jewelry makers on Etsy...necklaces or earrings. Overall, the responses seemed about 50-50 for either style. Some sellers seemed to sell one a little more often than the other, while other sellers thought they sold each in equal amounts.

For my Etsy shop, I have found that necklaces far out-sell earrings, by more than a 10-1 margin. I have never sat down and actually figured out the total, but I suppose if I had, the number were be far greater... perhaps the ratio is 15-1 or more!

Part of the reason may be that I've never really been thrilled with my images of the earrings I create and I suppose that "vibe" carries over in my shop. I'm not sure what it is, but my earring images just don't POP on the computer screen.

The necklace to earring ratio is not nearly as large when it comes to doing shows. Necklaces are still the winner, but sea glass earrings tend to sell better in person ( which confirms my earrings have a commercial value, I just haven't found the correct way of capturing these images for internet viewing) I would guess I sell a pair of earrings for every 3 necklaces at fairs and shows.

Perhaps this is the very reason I currently don't have any earrings in my Etsy.com shop... but I am working on a few new earring designs. Maybe they will photograph better!

'til next time...
R

I Wonder What This Was In It's Previous Life?

2010-03-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

I love playing with my sea glass. Taking out a jar or bucket and carefully spreading it out on the table. It's amazing how I can often find a piece that intrigues me...one that that I may have overlooked the last time I looked through them...or perhaps a piece that I scooped up at the beach and didn't pay much attention to when I came across it. Since DH and I are such big fans of blue sea glass, I couldn't believe that we hadn't noticed this piece before and yet somehow this piece has escaped us.

This cobalt blue piece of sea glass is quite different than any I've come across before. In the 2nd image above, there is a raised circular piece with an arrow on it (the image has been enhanced to show the arrow, thus the washed out color of blue) and the reverse (top image...this image shot through a 10x50 magnifying glass for detail...again washing out the color of the glass) shows a pattern of ooooooooo .

While this piece of sea glass will never be mistaken for jewelry quality, it did make for an interesting search for what might have this shard been before it was discarded into the sea. Being a big fan of sea glass, my interest is still piqued and if anyone knows the origin of this piece of deep cobalt blue sea glass, I'd love to hear what it may have been before the ocean got her hands on it.

'til next time...
R

PS- Yes I did a little jewelry-making this weekend also... images for my next blog entry : )

Is It Just Me or.... Recent Observations on Sea Glass Collecting....

2010-02-23T12:46:00.000-08:00

Is it Just Me or....

Has the prices being realized on the sale of sea glass gone through the roof? The economy has been just awful and from what I've gathered, I'm not the only sea glass jewelry maker that has been experiencing slower than usual sales. So what gives with the insane recent prices?

My hubby thinks there has been a huge number of jewelry-makers that have noticed that sea glass jewelry is a niche worth looking into. He's come across several listings on eBay where the sea glass is quite questionable (disclaimer- it's sometimes very hard to tell if some shards are authentic or not...but in most cases, he believes the sellers that are 100% legit do a great job showing their offerings to be authentic sea glass...and he questions those sellers that don't take quality pictures to be those to watch out for... he feels they are hiding something...Hmmm, tumbled, craft ???)
He's also noticed some rather questionable to blatantly fake pieces of sea glass jewelry over the last 4-6 months. Since he is a huge part of my operation (the main sea glasser, hole driller and has taken over the ordering of all supplies needed for my little biz) he has started to question people as to their knowledge of sea glass, where specific pieces were found and so on. He's gone as far to tell vendors that some of the pieces they are selling shouldn't be listed as authentic sea glass, rather be called altered sea glass because they've been tumbled, treated with some sort of oil, or they are just "undercooked".

Is It Just Me or....

Is everyone selling jewelry made with "sea glass" lately? I've come across several jewelry-makers that use several different types beads as their focal piece and lo and behold, there is the odd sea glass jewelry creation.

In some cases, the vendor remembers finding the piece at the beach when they were little, or on summer vacation. The answer flows freely, and they often have a story about walking on the beach with friends or family when they came across it. Most admit to not knowing much about sea glass ... until they found sea glass jewelry online or at a craft show and realized she had a great focal piece for a jewelry creation (and could get decent $$ for it).

But others know very little about sea glass, claim to have been given it, purchased it at a yard sale (?), but most likely checked out a site like Etsy.com, saw the prices being asked for authentic sea glass and they figured no one would know the difference between tumbled glass and authentic. Perhaps I give them too much credit... in many cases it looks like the packaged "stuff" that can be purchased from their local craft store for a few dollars. Or bought a cheap lot of sea glass on eBay, not knowing what they were buying.

In almost every case, the vendor knows nothing about sea glass and often, it's the greed of the vendor that gives them away. Instead of sticking with a common color, they go for the rare Red colors (because the asking price is usually quite high compared to a Heineken green) and figure their asking price of $25 or $30 for their "authentic" Red sea glass necklace will sell immediately. After all, I always find that sea glass jewelers only have red sea glass...and nothing else.

Perhaps all of the above is due to the fact that authentic sea glass is exactly as Richard LaMotte described for his book... vanishing gems. In New Jersey, pieces wash up on the beach almost every day, but they are usually the common colors.... Budweiser browns, Heineken greens, and Corona clear. The surf here isn't rocky, nor rough, and most of the sea glass we find is not jewelry quality (but still so much fun to find!) Every so often we come across a rare color shard lying in the sand, but with the exception of a few key sea glassing days, finding those rare colors are few and far between.

Searching for sea glass has become a more popular beach-going event than tossing a frisbee. In the past few years, the amount of people who seem to be looking for sea glass has more than tripled. And with the popularity of the "Vanishing Gems" comes the perceived value...and worse, what some people will resort to, to find sea glass before others. I've watched people with nets, scooping along the shell beds in the surf, sometimes within just a foot or less of other people!

Not everything I've observed over the last few months is a negative. I have viewed several gorgeous pieces of sea glass... the owners of the shards were more than happy to show me the "gems" of their collections. I have also found some of the new sea glass jewelry makers to share the same sea glass values that I have (authentic only) and a few of them are quite talented!

No longer is the sea glass on the beach left to myself and a few other collectors. Being one of a few offering sea glass jewelry is a thing of the past also. Despite dwindling supplies, sea glass continues to move toward the mainstream and with it, the value continues to go up. ( and in the last few months, the value has sky-rocketed) But I'm always confident that there is a gem waiting for me at the beach, and as always, you can find me at the beach, looking down in hopes of finding it.

'til next time...

R

Red Sea Glass for Valentine's Day

2010-01-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

With Valentine's day right around the corner, I thought it would be a good idea to blog about one of the rarest of colors in the world of sea glass... RED.

Ranked #2 on the rarity chart, red sea glass is one of the most sought-after colors of sea glass. In jewelry quality condition, a near-flawless piece can brings anywhere from $25 to upwards of $100 for the shard. In flawless condition or naturally shaped like a heart, can fetch that much or more.

Honestly, finding a red piece of sea glass is a rush, but really no more so than a cobalt or cornflower blue shard. Using sea glass in my jewelry creations, I actually find that the blues sell better than the reds and are in more greater demand (perhaps this is because the red pieces sell for 50%+ more than the blues)

So in honor of the upcoming holiday for lovers... here are some Reds!

Sea Glassing After A Full Moon

2010-01-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve, we had a Blue Moon which was accompanied by a brutal blast of cold air with vicious winds from Canada. The combo of western winds and a full moon led to something I don't recall ever seeing before... a low water level warning that was in effect for about 60 hours over the past weekend.

Now there was no way I was going out searching for sea glass, but Kevin doesn't have any problem roughing it (I guess all those years of playing hockey has made him a bit tolerant of the cold, but...)
And boy did he ever "rough it".

25 degree temps with 30 miles (wind chill temp was a brisk 9 degrees) per hour winds, gusting to 40mph+...at least the water was a balmy 38 degrees. Worse yet, the low tide was in the late afternoon, so very little warming effect from the sun.

The first trip yielded about 75 or 80 pieces of sea glass including several blues (cornflower, cobalt) a bunch of greens (mostly kelly, but he did find a couple olives and a pretty lime green) and lots of browns and whites...one of which was already turning lavender in the setting sun.

One of my favorite finds of the that trip was a blue shard with printing on it. Kevin found it behind what was once a barrier placed in front of the dunes. The last time I was out on the beach, I went behind this barrier to search the shells that were left behind from the Nor'easter that wiped out the dunes. Kevin happened to be passing the barrier on the way back to the car (trying to get close to the dunes to cut the wind) when he noticed a huge pile of shells left behind from a recent high tide...and there is was, a huge shard- very light cornflower blue, and about 2.5" in length, by 2" wide. It is lightly frosted, but I'm not sure if the shard was buried in the sand and uncovered by the severe tides we've experienced this fall/winter, or if it washed up.
But trying to uncover the mystery of what this shard was in it's original life will be a fun winter project!

The 2nd trip for Kevin was a bit rougher... steady winds in the 30-40 mph range, an hour later in the day and it was pretty much overcast...so not even the slightest bit of warming from the sun. And that isn't even the half of it....

When Kevin arrived, he was a bit disappointed that the ocean didn't appear to be as far back as he thought..but there was still opportunity for sea glassing. As he walked to his favorite stretch of beach, he noticed a blue piece of sea glass in the surf. He was timing the waves and made his move... as he was reaching for the piece (which he estimated at nearly an inch in length...and cornflower blue) he felt a rush of very cold water soaking his right foot. Distracted, he looked down to notice that the water was only about 3-4 inches up his boots...as the receding current took the shard back into deeper water. Walking back out of the water, he wiped the sand off the boot and noticed two gashes on his right boot, about an inch long...he must have had a shell or something slice into the boot on his last trip out : (

Despite the cold water soaking his foot, he stayed out on the beach, searching the shell beds and came home with nearly 50 more pieces of sea glass. But he was quite disappointed because he said there were at least that many more in 5 or 6 inches of water that he couldn't get to. The winds, dropping temps and a soaked foot made it tough for him to stay out much more than an hour (I would've been back in the car after 10 minutes) but he did bring home a couple more cobalts, and a 2" piece of very dark olive green. He still upset for not snagging the blue piece that got away, but the two day outing yielded over 120 pieces of sea glass, and a couple are jewelry quality pieces.

I guess I should grab him a new pair of boots... : )

Happy New Year everyone!

'til next time....

R

The Last Full Moon of the 2009

2009-12-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve will offer a third full moon for the month of December...and offer a prime opportunity to add to our sea glass collections on New Years Day.

I was able to get to the beach during November's full moon and the conditions were almost perfect for sea glassing...west wind, severe tides...if it weren't for the late afternoon low tide with the sun quickly sinking to the west, it would have been as close to perfect as possible (as close as temps in the mid-to high 30s will allow)
Illness and foul weather wiped out my chance to get to the beach early in December, so I'm really looking forward to hitting the beach and hunting for some ocean gems to start off 2010.

Here's hoping for a stiff western wind, 30 - 40 minutes of light during low tide and a severe low tide... Cobalt Beach is where I'll be heading and I'll be dreaming of finding that elusive orange piece...wow, that would be a great way to begin 2010!

til next time...

R

Clear Skies and Another Full Moon...

2009-11-16T06:35:00.000-08:00

After the worst November nor'easter I can recall, the sun has come back out (well it appeared for a little while very late yesterday) and the temperature is supposed to be near 70 today.

Tonight will be another full moon, so I believe that calls for another trip to the beach tomorrow. I stayed away from the beaches since the storm. From what I have heard, the beach erosion was quite severe in many places on LBI and I could only imagine how much work the towns were doing on the dunes trying to keep homes from being destroyed.

There were several spots where the dunes were badly damaged and reports that the sea could come over the damaged dunes and out into the streets at high tide...so I was quite nervous about going to LBI on Friday and again yesterday. But I will venture out there tomorrow and see what I can see...hopefully a few more winter pieces of sea glass.

I'll bring my camera along... speaking of camera, the images above are from my trip to the beach two weeks ago : )

'til next time...

R

Sea Glassing After A Full Moon

2009-11-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

For those that follow this blog, you already know that this is a key week for sea glass hunting. The sun and moon are at their closest points to our planets and with this month's new moon, the tides were much more severe than usual.

In New Jersey, we had a very strong wind from the east on Tuesday. The high tide was extremely high and the area was under flood alerts. Wednesday, saw the winds calm down a little bit and I gambled that low tide would pull out just a bit farther than usual. This year, I made the correct choice, but when I arrived, I thought I missed my chance at some nice pieces.

As I stepped on the beach, it was clear that the public work dept in LBI had been out early repairing the beach after a couple of days of rough high tides. The beach had been torn up, turned over and all of the high tide sea glass buried until the next severe Nor'easter.

But the they could do anything to prevent the moon from pulling the sea out a few extra yards and exposing some of the shell beds that normally sit in a foot or two of salt water. So there they sat, exposed shell beds and a bit farther out, another stretch of shell and rock beds that had the had the tiniest of waves gently washing over them... it was perfect for sea glassing!

We spent about an hour walking back and forth along the same stretch of beach and found more sea glass between tow jetties than we normally find all summer long! Most of the pieces were browns, but they appear to be very old browns because they are quite thick and well-frosted, along with the browns, we found a few amber, several greens & whites...which we expected.

What we didn't expect were the light "Coke bottle" blues, a couple of very pretty soft teals and since hubby drove to what he calls "Cobalt beach", I found 3 cobalts...one that is about 2" in length, over an 1" in width at it's widest point and quite thick. Hubby also found 2 cobalts, one was over an 1" in length and also fairly thick. That is far and away more cobalt sea glass than we've found in New Jersey in the last 2 years!

Most of the sea glass was not jewelry quality (tho we did find a couple that will be wrapped and made into necklaces...and maybe a couple smaller pieces will find their way onto a bracelet or used for earrings) but that is to be expected from Jersey sea glass.

In all, it was a fun trip...the weather wasn't awful, the sun was shining...my face feels a bit wind-burnt...but I'll be having fun washing my finds from this afternoon and hopefully have a few images to share later this week.

'til next time...

R

Sea Glass Images.... Too Pretty For Words...

2009-10-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

All The Leaves Are Brown & The Sky Is Gray...

2009-09-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, the summer is almost over. The children are officially back in school as of today (I don't what I'm going to do with myself, I think, ignoring the huge pile of sea glass that needs to be drilled...lol)

With a show this coming Sunday (The Beach Plum Festival, Island Beach State Park, NJ) I guess it's time to continue to put a few more items together, finish my wine glass charms (with sea glass for the "charm", of course) and begin working on a few more bracelets and pairs of earrings. I wrapped several pieces over the weekend and asked hubby to drill a few larger pieces of sea glass so I could attach charms to them. All 15 pieces are know waiting for my order of silver chains to arrive and they finished pieces will "debut" (like people are waiting with bated breath...lol) at the show this weekend.

A couple of the pieces have already found their way into my Etsy shop and a few more will be heading into the shop during the week (images of a couple necklaces above)

The recent tropical storms seemed to have stirred up quite a bit of shells on the beach and in the shell beds in the shallow water...but the sea glass is either buried underneath (or in the sand). Hopefully, things will settle down a bit and now that the summer is over, there will be far fewer people searching for sea glass. Here's hoping the next full moon exposes some beauties that were kicked up from the ocean floor and brought in for me to find...it's been a while since I found a pretty piece of cobalt and I'd really like to make myself a necklace with a piece of LBI cobalt blue!

I'm trying to figure out how to add a slideshow to my blog...I think it's too large and I have to figure out how to reduce the parameters to fit my side panel. Hopefully for next time...

'til then,
R

Hurricanes/Tropical Storms and very little Sea Glass

2009-08-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been quite a while since my last blog entry... Since the last time I blogged, we've had 2 tropical storms come up the coast and stir up the Atlantic. Yet there has been very little sea glass to show for the two storms...okay, actually nothing worth keeping...everything has been "under-cooked" and needed more time in the ocean.

I do have to admit, I have been quite surprised by the lack of sea glass. Even the larger than usual shell beds that seem to appear as the tides become rougher have yet to materialize after the storms. Maybe the ocean is just waiting for the summer crowds to leave so it can reward the "year-rounders" with some ocean treasures... or maybe there will be a bounty later this week when the new moon in September does it's thing with the tides.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the images of a couple of overlooked items in my Etsy shop. After my husband does a bit of drilling, I hope to have a few new items to share later this week.

'til next time...
R

New Creations, Sea Glassing Trip, weird online incidents

2009-08-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

The creative juices were flowing in overdrive this past weekend. I was a wire wrapping fool and probably knocked out about 2 dozen pendants from Friday night to Sunday evening. My fingers, the tools, the wire and the sea glass were all in the zone and everything seemed to be going so smoothly. I'd sit at the table for awhile, look at some of my choices and the next thing I knew, I had 3 or 4 wrapped pendants.

I think what started off this flow was sitting down to work on a custom order. The customer, a sea glass collector who comes up with some beautiful sea glass on the west coast, sent me several gorgeous pieces to wrap for her. I became inspired as soon as I saw these fab pieces. I immediately sat down last weekend and wrapped 2 of the beauties...but I saved some of the best pieces for last!
The bottom image is the entire lot of wrapped sea glass...aren't they some gorgeous pieces of sea glass?? What a pleasure to work with and so very inspiring! It made my not shabby, but nearly as gorgeous selections a joy to wrap...that's the kind of "zone" I fell into all weekend long. I still have all of my wrapped pieces laying out on my work bench...just a some eye candy for me each day when I go to my crafting table.

Since the creativity was flowing, I thought Sunday would be a good day for a bit of sea glassing. It was overcast, rain in the forecast...a perfect day to find some treasures.

My hubby and I arrived at the beach around 8-ish and we were the only people out there. The groomers had been out there, but must've been called back as they only did a couple strips of beach and there were hardly any footprints. Unfortunately, there also weren't very many shell beds and high-tide the night before must have been quite calm because there was almost nothing worthwhile at the high tide line.

And then the rain came, light at first, but quickly changing to a steady, driving rain. It didn't take too long before we were drenched and the lack of sea glass on the empty beach made things even more depressing. I did come across a couple shells that I'll drill and polish for some future creation and I also found a small bone .... well it was from a rather large fish and it seemed quite old. We've found these types of bones before and they do wash up from time to time, so we left this one behind for some one else to "find"...unless maybe the ocean reclaimed it later that day during the next high tide.

Strange online findings.... okay, this one was so strange, but it gave me one of those "what the hell" faces.
I was checking out my site stats and someone googled "how to polish sharp edges on sea glass" and somehow found my shop...and then they proceeded to spend a great deal of time there, looking at 39 pages (I only had 17 items listed). I thought it to be quite strange... I only use authentic sea glass and I usually don't have sharp edges in my creations...the sharp edged pieces only make it to my decorative jars or maybe a mosaic creation.
Could it be they really like my creations enough to average viewing each listing more than 2x each?

'til next time...

R

Some of my new Sea Glass creations...

2009-08-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

I was able to capture an image or two of a couple of my newest sea glass creations. These have not yet been listed in any of my online stores, though I did display them at a handmade show this past Sunday. I'm not sure how many people saw them tho, it poured and weather kept almost everyone away....tho some hearty-souls did come out after the deluge of rain.

I should have a few new sea glass jewelry pieces during the week to share...hopefully before they go into my online shops.

'til next time...
R

Old Ideas Equal New Creations....

2009-07-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

In my last update on this blog, I mentioned that I was planning on taking some old ideas and turning them into new creations. Since this past weekend's weather made it hard to plan outings in advance, I found time to get to my crafting table to plot & scheme and I came up with plans for a few sea glass mobiles.

I also finally got around to making a few pictures using sea glass and as soon as I clear out all of the vacation photos from my memory card, I'll add take pictures of the sailboat picture and the dragonfly picture (the dragonfly was pieced together oh, about 14 or 15 months ago..lol... and now she's finally in a frame)

I have a few more plans to execute by the middle of September and a lot more creating to do by then. DH doesn't know it yet, but he has a whole bunch of sea glass waiting for holes and if I get a chance today, I'm going to add more to his "to drill list" : )

Oh yea, I also created a few more piece of sea glass jewelry... the images above are a couple of the creations I was able to capture images of before the skies became overcast. The purple sea glass necklace is just gorgeous and the image does the shard little justice...it's currently on Etsy and the olive sea glass w/seahorse charm will go into my Etsy shop later today.

Hopefully I'll have some images of the sea glass mosaics for the next update.

'til next time...

R

Lots of creating to do... new sea glass creations, old ideas...

2009-07-22T13:47:00.000-07:00

For the longest time, I've wanted to use my sea glass in other creations. I used to decorate picture frames with sea glass and I think it's time to incorporate some of my sea glass with my collection of other ocean/beach findings into something a bit different than my handmade sea glass jewelry.

It's not that I'm bored with making jewelry...but it is about all the great beach finds that may not be jewelry quality. I think that I may have been viewing these pieces as less than desirable when they are sitting on the table, drying after their warm water, mild dish soap bath.

They were not viewed that way when I found them on the beach... they were treasured finds. But when I get them home and evaluate if they are jewelry quality, it's almost like I view them as not good enough. But they are and always have been, just maybe not for jewelry.

So I'm now excited that it's time for something completely different (yes, I borrowed that from Monty Pythons...lol) So once again, I'm experimenting with sea glass and hope to have a few new items to add to my shop. For right now, I'm not going back to creating jewelry with glass beads or semi-precious stones... I'm sticking with my passion- sea glass.

But this time, those pieces that were not quite good enough are just perfect for what I have in mind. And that excites me, just as much as it did when I spotted these ocean gems lying in the surf, begging for me to pick them up.

The images above are just a few of my latest sea glass necklaces and I have several more pieces of jewelry to share (hopefully the next images are shared BEFORE they are listed)

'til next time...

R

Random Thoughts... Is My Sea Glass Vintage?

2009-07-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

While on Etsy, I notice quite a bit of vintage threads in the promotions forum. I've often wondered if I should add one of my necklaces to the thread. Certainly some of the sea glass I've used in necklaces or bracelets is more than a few decades old... and that would make it vintage.

I know a few of the pieces of sea glass that I purchased from collectors in the UK is quite old. The area where the glass is often found is located close to where a glass company once operated. I've been told the glass company ceased operations more than 50 years ago, so conceivably, most of the end of day glass I purchased, spent decades in the ocean being re-worked in the gorgeous gems they are today.

Vintage, recycled, upcycled... I wonder if it would be worth the effort explaining the entire process to Etsy, other sellers/buyers, just to have the opportunity to tag my listings as vintage.

But on the other hand, the effort it would spread the word on what sea glass is, where it may have come from, and how it turned from a piece of unwanted, discarded trash to a beautiful, much sought-after ocean gem.

Decisions, decisions... perhaps a sea glass hunting trip will clear my head : )

'til next time...

R

Using Multi-Colored Sea Glass In My Jewelry Creations

2009-07-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

Recently I've had a little love affair with multi-colored sea glass. I find the colors so fascinating and the possibilities of what I can create using a multi intrigues me. But after watching the reactions of some of my customers at shows and the results of my sales online and in consignment shops, I'm not sure how accepted these creations are.

The UK is quite famous for it's multi-colored sea glass or "end of day" glass. When glass making was popular, several decades ago, many glass companies in the UK were located very close to the sea. The companies often tossed whatever glass was unusable or left over at the end of the day into the sea. And the ocean would do what the ocean does... break large shards into smaller pieces, tumble the sharp edges smooth and leech out the chemicals used to make glass.

What is left are gorgeous sea glass gems and they are truly quite different from much of the sea glass we find here in North America (not that we don't have multi-colored sea glass here... we just don't have nearly as much as the UK)

I'm not sure if some of my regular customers realize that the pieces really are authentic sea glass or if they just don't appeal to them, but watching some of their reactions becomes amusing sometimes because the glass often looks so fantastic in the light, but will appear a bit darker in front of a solid, dark background.

Maybe multi-colored sea glass is going to take a bit of time for some folks to get used to. To me, some of them are quite gorgeous... and I know I'll be adding a few multies to my personal sea glass jewelry collection in the very near future!

Craft Shows for July

July 11th- OM Baby, Pt. Pleasant, NJ 12pm-6pm 20+ EtsyNJ members will pack the front, inside and the back of the studio for the Summer OM Baby show!!
July 18th- The Handmade Faire, Summer of Love. Freedom Park, Medford, NJ over 100 crafters offering a wide array of handmade creations... it's THE show in NJ!!
August 1st- Lacey CrabFest and Craft Show, Lacey Rd, Forked River, NJ. Yea, it's a weird little combo, but it works! The show is in it's 9th year and the CrabFest in it's 13th. Come check out the handmade creations while sampling some great summer-time eats.

'til next time....

R

Popular Colors of Sea Glass Jewelry, Competition on the Beach....

2009-06-26T07:14:00.000-07:00

I've spoken with other sea glass jewelry makers and it's amazing how the same popular colors are often mentioned. There are just some colors that sell very well, while others tend to stay in our inventory longer than others. The people who really know sea glass, understand that some colors are extremely tough to locate, especially jewelry quality pieces. If they like the piece, they are willing to spend the money.

But for the casual sea glass lover, it seems like the demand lies in a few colors. The blues pieces, specifically cornflower blue, followed closely by cobalt blue seem to be the most popular. I found that if I wanted to make sure I had cornflower blue jewelry for an upcoming show, I needed to put it aside, rather than add it to my Etsy shop. Eben with minimal promoting, somehow shoppers seem to find cornflower blue sea glass pieces in my shop.

I guess jewelry with red sea glass is just a universal must have...when I have a couple pieces with red sea glass at a show, they seem to get all the attention. People may buy something else, but they all pick the piece with the red and hold it up to the mirror to see how it would look on them.
Reds seem to have some magical power and the mystical draw of a red piece of sea glass has produced some, well interesting behavior.

I had a sea glass necklace with a pretty red piece of sea glass as the pendant at a show a few months ago. Several people commented, looked at it... a few came back two & three times to see it again. My husband watched this and predicted that one of three women was going to plunk down the money for it during the show... he claimed it was calling out to them. He was half right.

The show had hit a bit of a lull and I had a couple of customers at my table looking at a few of my blue and green necklaces. One of the women commented how pretty the red piece was, before she was practically "hip-checked" out of the way (that's what hubby said it looked like... a hockey hip-check) A women who had just spent about 20 minutes at my table came from across the aisle, "moved" the customer out of the way while grabbing the red sea glass necklace and announced "I'll take it".

I was somewhat stunned by the action and looked at the first women (who I was in conversation with) while my hubby stood up, took the necklace and began placing it in a gift box for the 2nd women. The women who had been there first, looked for a few more minutes before moving on and I finished the sale with the women who raced across the floor to claim her prize. She was so thrilled, she put the necklace on before she left my table and off she went....glancing at every display that had a mirror...lol. My hubby said he saw her standing in the next aisle, looking at the table and she must've believed the customers that I had been conversing with was about to buy "her" necklace. He said her eyes got BIG and she marched to our table and staked her claim on the red piece... it was going to be hers and she wasn't waiting, she nudged herself right to the front of my table and grabbed the necklace...display and all. This wasn't one of his predicted buyers, but he did say it was going to a new hme that day.

So school is now out for the summer and the out-of towners (or bennies, as we like to call them) are here, on the beaches, in full force. If things weren't bad enough last summer with the antics of some when it came to sea glass hunting, it doesn't seem like our summer of 09 visitors have learned any beach etiquette for this summer either. There is nothing quite like telling your young son that you saw a piece of green sea glass in the water and having some oaf, hear you and proceed to step in front of you while trying to "steal" the piece. Talk about wanting to give them a swift kick where the sun doesn't shine when they bend over to pick up the sea glass.

My hubby drove two adult women nuts the other day, when he kept announcing he saw something red in the water. He spent another few minutes looking (and they moved farther into the surf, right in front of him) before he left. More than half hour later, we went back to that same spot and were joined by the same two women and one of their husband/boyfriend. Again they took up a spot about 3 feet directly in front of us and this time my hubby was ready to play his oh so funny, yet cruel joke.

Like he did last year, he packed a couple small popular colors of sea glass into a zip lock bag & puts them with our sun block. When he decides someone needs a bit of beach behavior modification, he takes a piece with him to the water and places it in his pocket...and then the game begins.... He waits about 5 or 10 minutes. Maybe we'll move down the beach a few feet to see if they follow and when they do, hubby knows the game needs to be on. Just as they settle in, he'll say "Did you see it?" while pointing to an area. Once he's positive that they are totally not concerned with our "space" at the water's edge, he pulls the planted sea glass piece out, walks right up alongside them, bends down and "scoops up the beauty."
Of course they exclaim they didn't see it, start with the "how could you miss it?". I'll add insult to injury when I tell them that he always "finds" such nice pieces...lol. It works like a charm...they are usually shot after that...I mean, what are the chances of finding another gem after "missing out" on such a nice piece. At least they tend to give us some space (I mean is 3 or 4 feet too much to ask... I really don't need to smell your perfume at the beach nor do I care to breathe in your 2nd hand smoke)

We usually lie and tell people that there is plenty of sea glass for everyone. The truth is, the supply of sea glass in the ocean is dwindling. Plastic is the new glass, ocean dumping is no longer accepted and basically the last time any major glass dumping occurred was probably about 4 decades ago. The ocean which tumbles the shards of glass, making them rounder, with dulled edges and beautiful frosted patinas is actually reducing the shard to it's original form. By taking out or leeching the chemicals from the glass, all that will be left one day is a few granules of sand.
So if you happen upon a piece of sea glass washed up on the beach, grab it before the ocean takes it back... if you don't know what to do with it, drop me a line. I'll be more than happy to add it to my collection, or perhaps make you a keepsake that you can pass on to future generations. After all, only you know the story of how that wonderful piece, a vanishing gem lying in the surf was found and it's a story worth sharing.

'til next time...
R

New Summer Sea Glass Creations, Craft Show Schedule....

2009-06-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

I've been off from the J-O-B for the last two days, so I used my little "mini-vacation" to straighten up my craft table and do a little creating to build up my inventory for June & July craft shows.
The images above are a couple of my newest items (both are in my Etsy shop) and I'll be adding a couple more into both my ArtFire and Etsy shops over the next couple of days.

I even snuck out of the house and made a trip to AC Moore this afternoon...and found a couple items I've been looking for online, but unable to find. Finding those components will allow me to place my online orders for drill bits, and a bunch of sterling silver (wires, necklaces, bracelets, head pins, etc).

So my "summer circuit" craft show season is under way. I had a fun time at the Barnegat Bay Festival and was excited by both the amount of traffic at the show and the number of people that were buying and/or very, very interested in my sea glass jewelry. I handed out a lot of business cards and had quite a few people asking me what shows I'm doing next.

My summer shows (for my followers that prefer not to shop online)
June 13th- The Field Dog Expo on Mt. Holly Rd. in Medford, NJ. Looking at all the activities they are planning for this show, it looks to be a fun, family festival. Lots of things to keep the children occupied, plenty of puppies and of course, a handmade craft fair with a few EtsyNJ members attending.

July 11th- OM Baby, Pt. Pleasant, NJ- another EtsyNJ event. It seems like about 20-25+ EtsyNJers will appear at the OM Baby Yoga studio for the 2009 spring version of this event. It's in a great area, many wonderful shops nearby and of course, the Pt. Pleasant beach and boardwalk.

July 18th- The 2nd annual spring edition of The Handmade Faire. This year's spring event will be held in Freedom Park, in Medford, NJ. The show is juried, (I'm still pending and crossing my fingers to be accepted) and one of our EtsyNJ team leaders, organizes this event. The first annual spring and fall events were outstanding... the high quality of handmade crafters made these shows the best in Central/Southern NJ and perhaps the best throughout the state (they were by far the best handmade show I've ever attended) I'm really looking forward to this show, and hope to be selected (emails to AbbieRoad of Etsy requesting my presence are appreciated... lol)

August 1- The Lacey Crabfest & Craftshow- I don't remember how many years the Crabfest has been held, (I know it's more than a dozen) but the CraftShow is in it's 9th year. The event attracted several hundred people last year despite a hard early morning shower and even with a slow start, the show was a success for me. Another fun show that attracted a handful of EtsyNJ members (which always makes a show a good time)

Hopefully somewhere in the mix, we'll get the first handmade craft show at the Nautical Museum in Beach haven on LBI (probably the 2nd or 3rd weekend in August)

That's it...a busy summer, squeeze in a vacation and a few trips to the beach and it's almost Labor day by the time the smoke clears : (

til next time...

R

My sea glass hunt is rained out .....

2009-05-31T07:04:00.000-07:00

I hoped to sneak away this morning to hit the beach and do a solo sea glass hunt. However, Mother Nature changed my mind. A drizzle that turned into a steady rain and morphed into a down pour keeps me in the house.

And I swear that there was going to be some beauties lying along the high tide line today : (

So, I'm taking a short coffee break to blog, share images of a couple of pieces that are going to their new home on the west coast (to a fellow sea glass collector) before I sit down to my craft table and create a few new sea glass creations for my shops and my upcoming summer craft shows.

Maybe I can sneak off to the beach tomorrow...here's hoping the ocean understands my plight and leaves something pretty behind for me to find!!

Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry~~ CreationsByRobin

2009-05-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Find more photos like this on Sea Glass Artists & Sea Glass Collectors

A Few New Creations, and Shutout at the Beach...

2009-05-17T05:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to sit down at my crafting table and make a few new creations. I wrapped about 8 or 9 pieces of sea glass, and added them to the small collection of pendants that I've been wrapping in my spare moments. Before I added chains to the sea glass, I spread them out for a few photos and got very lucky to shoot the above photo, just before the sun disappeared behind the clouds.

The cornflower pendant/necklace will probably make it's way into my Etsy shop later today and join the purple/amethyst necklace. The purple piece of sea glass has been in my collection for awhile. It hasn't been a piece that I displayed around my home with my other sea glass. Instead, I think I always have thought as this piece as perfect for jewelry. The images of the purple piece are not what I had hoped for, and I will definitely be adding a few new images when the sun decided to return. It's a surprisingly beautiful shard and one that will make a great summer accessory....I just wish purple was a color that looked good on me : (

My trip to the beach to hunt sea glass was a total washout. I believed I had arrived early enough, but found a beach with many footprints and very few shell beds. I guess quite a few people had the same idea I did and they all arrived first. I did find a nice little green piece that may find it's way onto one of my future bracelet or earring creations, but there was very little in the way of sea glass. I enjoyed a nice stroll on the beach, but came away empty-handed.

'til next time...

R

It's Been a Long Time....

2009-05-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

... since I updated this blog...Wow, a very long time!
I joined a few sea glass forum sites and I guess it's has sucked up all my blogging time. These sites are full of great information and I've learned a great deal about sea glass in other areas of the country, along with collecting habits of those that live overseas. The time I have spent on one site in particular is time well spent...it unfortunately comes at the expense of my blogs and I hope to get back to blogging a bit more.

Despite spending a lot of time sharing info on these sites (and I learn probably 10x the amount compared to what I share with them) I have been quite busy creating several new sea glass creations, most of which are consigned to brick and mortar shops. I do have a lot of sea glass that needs to be drilled for new creations, along with several choice beauties that I will be wire wrapping for necklaces.

In addition, I plan on adding a few anklets, wine charm sets and decorating picture frames with sea glass, shells, ocean stones and driftwood. Some of these new additions will find their way into my online shops and others will end up in the shops where I currently have my handmade sea glass jewelry.

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get to the beach to go hunting for sea glass... I need to find some new pieces for some of these new creations. It's truly a beautiful thing....I go to the beach to pick up supplies for my creations : ) The beaches of the world are like my Michael's or Fire Mountain Gems. Walking along the beach looking for sea glass has always been one of my passions... it's relaxing, the views are quite nice and when I'm the only person on the beach, it's extremely calming. So the top item on my to-do list tomorrow is to go beach gem shopping... it's great to know that my money is no good there too : )

My summer craft show schedule still shows quite a few pending shows, but it is beginning to come together and I'm also booking fall/holiday shows (which I'll share when the shows get closer)

My handmade sea glass creations will be at-

-The Barnegat Bay Festival on June 7th, in Island Heights, NJ
-The Field Dog Expo on June 13th in Medford, NJ (lots of handmade crafters at this show!)
-The NJ Maritime History Handmade Show on June 27th at the Museum of New Jersey Maritime History in Beach Haven (Long Beach Island) NJ this show is still pending -permits
- OM Baby Handmade Show-on July 11th in Point Pleasant, NJ
- The Handmade Faire on July 18th in Medford, NJ this show is also still pending and I'm crossing my fingers that it goes off- it's probably the best show in central/southern NJ!!!

Hopefully I'll have a few nice pieces of sea glass to share with you for my next post.

'til next time...
R

New Sea Glass Jewelry, and a few days of Beachcombing

2009-04-28T06:17:00.000-07:00

The sudden heat wave brought a few great days to hit the beach this past weekend and with the heat wave, came the day-trippers, the seasonal "tourists" and all of the locals.

I hit the beach early Saturday morning, to find an almost empty beach...only one other person was out walking her dog. I found a few shell beds that had been left behind by the early morning high tide and spent a good deal of time picking out some shells and searching for sea glass. It was quite enjoyable to spend a beautiful sunny, warm early morning on a quiet beach...just searching for treasures, and watching the morning sun rise in the sky, especially after the rough winter we had this year.

As spring turns to summer, there may not be very more quiet beach mornings. But I truly enjoyed the first warm morning of the the year and found it wonderfully revitalizing.

I suppose that becomes a nice bridge to my next topic... Finding incentive from my trip to the beach, I came home and went to my crafting table.

A few of the pieces I created this past weekend have already made their way into my shop on Etsy, and a few more went to the brick & mortars where I have some sea glass jewelry consignments. The images above are some of the new creations and I'll be back at the crafting table later this week to make a few more pieces.

Who knows, maybe I can squeeze in just one more quiet morning on the beach before things get crazy around here : )

Finally...a few days at the beach and some new creations....

2009-04-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

With my children off from school for Spring Break, I was able to take a few days off from work and spend some time with them. We took the boys out for dinner Weds night and spent the morning with them before they went to spend the night at their Aunt's house (which our youngest bailed out on, cutting short some quiet time with the hubby) But before he bailed, my hubby and I had enough time for an hour long stroll on the beach (also dinner and about 45 minutes at a bookstore) looking for sea glass.

Once again, LBI was void of shell/rock beds and the sea glass pickings were few and far between. We did manage to find a few nice shells and a few pieces of glass each, but for the most part, it was really a nice walk on the beach.

On Friday, we decided to try taking a trip to New Jersey's southern most beach... Cape May. We took our boys with us and arrived at the cape May lighthouse a little after 1:00pm. The four of us trekked along the beach, heading south until we we stopped at Sunset Beach, which is famous for the concrete ship that ran aground in the surf and remains stuck in the water a short distance from the beach.

Once again, it wasn't a great day for sea glass, though we did find many more pieces in Cape May than LBI. What we had fun looking for were Cape May Diamonds. The "diamonds" are actually very clear pieces of quartz and they can, when polished in a rock tumbler, resemble a diamond.
We did find several examples and the boys had fun picking up some very pretty rocks.

There seems to be small quantities of rocks, like topaz, quartz (in many colors) etc, lying in the Cape May surf and the day turned out to be one large rock/sea glass collecting treasure hunt. And to top it all off, hubby took us all to The Lobster House, one of my favorite restaurants along the Jersey shore for dinner.

I've often said that every day at the beach is a good day and even though we didn't find many great examples of sea glass on Friday, it was great to the beach on a fairly warm, sunny day. We took a nice long beach walk, found lots of beach treasures and topped it off with a great meal.

Yes, it was a VERY good day : ) !!

Oh yea, I did get a chance on Thursday to spend some time at my crafting table and made a couple of bracelets, a pair of earrings and 4 or 5 more necklaces. The image of the necklace above, will eventually get into my shop on Etsy and the top image is the concrete ship that ran aground just off the Cape May coast.

'til next time...

R

The Sea Glass Generation

2009-03-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

This has been a blog post that's been on the back-burner for several weeks and I found some inspiration to finish the post from a sea glass collector's group I belong to. The title to this thread is borrowed from one the members of this very knowledgeable group of collectors. So before I continue, I'd like to credit Krista's Kiln with the title for this blog.

This blog is one for those that know the thrill of finding one of the ocean's brilliant gems lying in the sun on the beach....

A couple of months ago, my hubby was searching the beach for sea glass when he came across a fairly large shell bed that was left behind by high tide. Shell beds like these are often contain many treasures for sea glass collectors and I've spent 30-45 minutes combing through the piles picking out some of the nicest pieces, and sometimes leaving other pieces behind for the next passerby.

While going through the pile my hubby found, he came across a few unfinished pieces (or under-cooked, as he and other collectors like to refer to them) a small handful of smaller to medium sized frosty pieces and a few slivers. Two of the three slivers were of one of the more sought-after colors, cobalt, and they were pretty well weathered. And it's these barely-there slivers that inspired this blog post...and it's one that leads to a sad realization for sea glass collectors.

As the discarded bottles tumble around in the surf, they break into shards and the combo of sea and surf work their magic. Chemicals are leeched out of the glass, smaller pieces break off, shards become smaller. After all glass is made from sand, so it's only natural that they return from where they once came.

As the years go by, the pieces tumbling around in the sea become smaller and smaller until they will on day be too small to see...and since we no longer make the amount of glass we once did, these ocean treasures are vanishing...vanishing in our lifetime.

This makes me wonder if my children will have the opportunity to share beachcombing with their children as we have with them? Or will my son's generation be among the final sea glass generations?

So going forward, I won't leave behind any finished pieces on the beach for the chance that someone else may find it. For if they don't the tide surely will reclaim it's treasure and subject it to more tumbling, perhaps years of tumbling, until it reduces the shard back to the granules of sand it once had been.

But don't think that I'm greedy because I did my best to pick up all the finished pieces of sea glass. I love giving pieces of sea glass away to people who obviously are looking for a piece of our maritime history... there is nothing like handing a piece of sea glass to a youngster and introducing them the hobby I have such passion for... at the same time, I'm expanding the future generation of sea glass collectors and hoping to keep the hobby alive.

After all, it is a hobby that will one day grind to an end, but hopefully not too soon...

'til next time...
R

Warm Weather, New Sea Glass Creations and the First Consignment Opportunity of the Season....

2009-03-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sixty-two degrees on the Jersey shore yesterday! If I wasn't putting the last touches on a few consignment pieces, I would have been combing the beach for sea glass... but there will plenty of hunting opportunities before the summer season starts.

Instead, I spent the day finishing up a few items for my Etsy shop and making several new pieces for a B&M shop where I'll be displaying sea glass jewelry this spring/summer. Between sessions at my crafting table, the sun peeked out from the mostly overcast skies, so I spent time alternating between creating sea glass jewelry and capturing images of finished pieces.

Some of the images on the new pieces need work and I'll need to retake some shots again, but a few of the images were acceptable and yesterday I listed my first multi-color sea glass necklace. Also known as "end of day glass", this beauty is mostly white/clear with a splash of aqua blue. It's very pretty when held to the sunlight, and this piece is very smooth and well-frosted. This perfect piece of English sea glass is listed in my shop on Etsy.

I suppose it's time to announce the first brick & mortar shop that I will be displaying my sea glass jewelry for the spring and summer months. I will have between a dozen- 2 dozen pieces of my creations at the Museum of NJ Maritime History in Beach Haven. The LBI museum is simply beautiful, with many great displays...so many in fact, that it would be impossible to really take in everything in just one visit.

There is great upside to selling my handmade sea glass jewelry on Long Beach Island and I'm thrilled to have my creations at the museum for the spring and summer. If you are on LBI for the day or on vacation, stop in at the museum...it's free of charge... and take in some of the wonderful displays and some of New Jersey's Maritime history.

The images above are a couple of my new pieces. The red will probably be heading to my Etsy shop later tonight and the English multi-color is already in my Etsy shop.

til next time...

R

A few new pieces of Hanmdade Sea Glass Jewelry

2009-03-24T04:14:00.000-07:00

A weekend craft show and a Sunday Etsy sale left my shops a bit wiped out, so back to the crafting table I went..... well not everything is just made... I have several pieces that were works-in-progress and a bunch of items that are/were set to go on consignment... and now I need to re-stock the shops.

I still have to take photos of most of the pieces, but here are a few new pieces that will find their way into my Etsy shop this week. I also have a necklace ready to go into my Art Fire shop and I'm working on a few sets of earrings to add to all three of my CreationsByRobin shops (Etsy, Art Fire, 1000 Markets)

The Red Sea Glass necklace was added to my Etsy shop on Sunday, and the 2 blue pieces will eventually find their way into the shop...the bracelet will be listed later today.

til next time...

R

New Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry...

2009-03-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for an upcoming show, putting together a line of sea glass jewelry for a summer resort area gift shop and building up some inventory for my online shops have kept me at my crafting table for much of the weekend.

I finished several pieces today, a couple that will go into my online shops and several that will go into the gift shop where I'll be displaying some of my handmade sea glass jewelry. One of the pieces is my first necklace (or any piece of jewelry) with a piece of red sea glass. The red sea glass piece is absolutely beautiful and practically flawless. It's wrapped with sterling silver wire and hangs on an 18" sterling silver chain...(Image above)

One of the other pieces I finished today was a gorgeous heart shaped sea glass necklace. The piece of sea glass is a dark cornflower blue piece that has also been wrapped with sterling silver wire and hangs on a sterling silver necklace.

These were the only 2 images I was able to photograph during a brief brightening of what was a rainy and overcast Sunday sky. Hopefully the weather will clear up a bit, so I can continue taking pictures this week.

til next time...

R

Waiting on the Sun...New Sea Glass Jewelry!

2009-03-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

Besides this beautiful cornflower blue sea glass necklace, I did a few more wire wrapped sea glass necklaces, including the first piece of jewelry with red sea glass.

I'm hoping for a break in the cloudy skies...but that break doesn't seem likely today : (

The red piece will most likely end of up displayed in the B&M opportunity I spoke about in my last entry. They are setting me up with a beautiful octagon-shaped showcase display and I think this red sea glass necklace will look great as the centerpiece.

And that will give me the chance to keep it around to admire for a couple more weeks : )

I hope the sun sneaks out from behind the clouds tomorrow so I can try to get a few photos taken and share the images on this blog.

til next time...

R

New opportunities, new additions to my sea glass collection and new creations....

2009-03-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I took a big step into placing a large quantity of my sea glass jewelry into a brick & mortar selling opportunity. The possible opp is all but finalized and I'm very excited about being able to put several pieces into one location that often has several hundred visitors or more every week in the summer.

This will probably limit any other consignment/wholesale opportunities, but the potential is so great that I'll be" putting all my eggs" in one basket when it comes to brick & mortar stores. (of course, should any store want to take on my glass beads/semi-precious pearl jewelry, that is a different story)

Today, my hubby and I went through a large quantity of sea glass that we've acquired over the last 5 or 6 months. We culled many of the pieces that I can't use for my jewelry creations and I came away with enough for a couple dozen necklaces, a several pairs of earrings and a handful of bracelets. I still have a few lots of sea glass that I have purchased from private collectors that I haven't received...there are several pieces that will make great necklaces and add to my earring & bracelet totals.

So back to my crafting table... my Etsy shop needs a new addition or 2 and it would be great to add something new to my 1000 Markets and Art Fire sites and then off to work on my brick and mortar creations... hopefully, everything is finalized later this week and I can announce where my newest selling location is!

The piece of sea glass above, is a grape piece of sea glass that I've been holding for quite awhile. Perfectly smooth from tumbling around in the sea, it has nice frosting and is practically flawless. The color just blows me away and I've been debating if it's a piece I keep for myself or one that I share with a lucky customer on day soon. It will make a very pretty necklace...but the inner-debate rages on!
The 1st image is one of my latest creations... a pale seafoam sea glass necklace. Should the sun cooperate today, I should have a few more images of the necklaces I created on Sunday.

til next time...

R

A few new pieces to share....

2009-02-27T15:20:00.000-08:00

No, not jewelry. Just plain old sea glass, but I think I'm more excited about the new pieces than I get when I create a new piece of sea glass jewelry!

I found a couple pieces of green this week , along with a smallish piece of teal and all have the possibility of being used in a sea glass bracelet or earring stack.

There really wasn't a lot of sea glass on the beach and the surf yielded on one piece of green, but to find a few pieces that could be considered jewelry quality is something that hasn't happened in quite some time. Come to think of it, it's been several months since I found a piece of sea glass on the Jersey shore that I would consider to be of "jewelry quality".

I should have an image or two of the glass to share tomorrow...can you tell I'm a bit excited?

til next time...

R

New Sea Glass Creations, Works In Progress and Getting Ready for Boutiques?

2009-02-25T06:26:00.000-08:00

Two new sea glass necklaces have been added to my Etsy shop and I'm busy working on putting together a few new bracelets and a couple new pairs of earrings. I'm looking to add a couple of bracelets to my Etsy shop, and I hope to add a bracelet and earrings to my ArtFire shop and a couple pair of earrings to my 1000 Markets store.

I've been busy drilling sea glass, and I have about 60 pieces drilled and I'm looking to add another 15 or 20 pieces during the week. Hopefully, my last 2 drill bits can complete the project.

I'd on the fence over putting together a presentation package for a few local brick & mortar shops. I'm hoping to have enough sea glass for my shows and to keep my shops, especially Etsy, stocked throughout the year.

Finding enough jewelry quality sea glass is getting tough. There's quite a bit of competition on the beaches looking for the ocean gems and the few trusted suppliers I purchase from have found the demand for quality pieces far exceeds their supplies...which of course means higher prices. Silver has been going up every day, so it's becoming harder to make affordable sea glass creations and having to charge more $$ in a sluggish economy means less sales.

So finding the right store or boutique is going to be very important and being able to keep them supplied all summer long is going to be challenging. Hopefully, I can talk hubby into hitting the beach in hopes of finding a few pretty pieces during the next few weeks.

I'll post more images, as I complete pieces.

til next time...

More Changes to the Beach, New Sea Glass Creations

2009-02-21T05:24:00.000-08:00

Each of the last couple of trips to the beach have revealed completely different beach-scapes. Some of the local towns on LBI have been adding/moving quite a bit of sand. The sand buildup is very necessary to keep the surf off of the dunes, which protect ocean front homes.

However, for the beachcombers that frequent the area, it becomes quite frustrating. The shell beds that are often left behind by the high tides, are often buried under imported sand... and buried with the shells are the sea glass that washed up with them.

Since late last summer, I've noticed, as have others, that the shell beds that were normally be found on the beach in the winter months are no longer found on the beach. The lack of shell beds on the beach has made sea glass quite scarce. Unless you can get to the beach at low tide, and are lucky enough to find the low tide is extreme enough to expose shell or stone beds, you may find a few pieces of sea glass.

My best outing of the winter was the perigean spring tides back in November, when an extreme low tide exposed a twenty- thirty foot shell bed where several pieces of sea glass lay waiting for me.

As the waves slowly rolled in, the beds shifted and further exposed a few more ocean gems. After about 30 minutes, the shell bed was cleaned out and a quick walk for a few blocks in each direction proved a waste of time (well almost a waste, a pretty cobalt blue tiny shard was found a couple blocks down)

The extreme low tide proved worthwhile for 2 straight days. Low tide the next afternoon yielded another handful of sea glass, but the tide came near sunset and battling a cold day and stronger wind wasn't much fun (at least at that time... I've been on the beach many times since in brutal weather conditions and came home practically empty-handed)

Since that bountiful 2 day haul, this winter hasn't yielded that many pieces combined. I know there gems are out there... whether they are buried by the beach construction or sitting farther out in the surf. There may not be as many left out there, but they're out there... : )

Two new sea glass necklaces should be making an appearance in my shops later tonight or tomorrow. The first is a greenish-blue piece that has me searching my "Pure Sea Glass" book
for the name of the color. It's not quite teal, but calling it a green doesn't do this ocean gem justice.

The second piece is a light green piece with a yellow-ish tinge. It looks like it could be depression glass and does take on a brilliant bright green when held under a black light. This UV piece of sea glass has been wire wrapped and made into a necklace... it's a great piece for someone that does a lot of clubbing where the lighting will certainly change the look of the sea glass.

The sun is out today, but it's only 29 degrees... too cold to hit the beach for pictures and beachcombing...but I plan on getting some indoor pictures later today when the sun moves into a better position. Hopefully I'll have images to add later!

til next time...
R

First on the Beach?? Beachcombing at Low Tide

2009-02-15T06:33:00.000-08:00

My hubby set the alarm for 5am to do a bit of beachcombing this morning. His game plan was to hit the beach shortly before sunrise and be first on the beach. With low tide peaking somewhere between 5: 30 and 5:55 this morning, he grabbed a quick cup of coffee for the ride, bundled up and made his trek to the beach. The temperature when he left was 33 degrees and with a 10-10mph wind out of the chilly west, the wind chill hovered around 20 degrees.

His hope was to be first on the beach, but he quickly realized when he got to his favorite spot, that someone had beat him to the high tide line. He surmised that a couple people walking a dog had walked along the what the high tide left behind and shockingly, what looked to be a women's footprint was in the sand... yes a FOOTPRINT... not shoe print, but a bare naked foot!

The winds made for a brutal 20-30 minutes on the beach and by the time my hubby decided to call it a morning, his feet were very cold (and he was wearing heavy wool socks and insulated boots) The wind was finding any little opening and quickly getting to his skin.

So besides getting a chance to watch another glorious sunrise (which he says somehow warms him up ...if only for a couple of minutes) he noticed thousands of crab shells and crab legs all over the beach. The gulls must have had some feast earlier that morning!

He did come across a couple of decent green pieces... possibly jewelry quality, and a few small pieces that will go into one of our display glasses/jars. Plus he took several pictures of the sunrise.

If you take a look at the ocean, you can see why our sea glass is rarely jewelry quality... a flat sea with no rocky areas... that often equals triangular and square pieces, rather than the round, well tumbled and sometimes flawless pieces found on the islands and the west coast.

Oh well, he said he's gonna try the beach again later this week, probably on Thursday or Friday, when low tide is closer to 10 & 11 in the morning.

til next time...

Saying Goodbye To 3 Of My "Easter Eggs", Beachcombing Day??

2009-02-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Three of sea glass necklaces are heading to a new home in Illinois later today and two of the three were on the Styleboard I created for yesterday's blog (an image of all 3 are above)

The gray piece is really gorgeous and probably a bit under-priced. I wasn't sure about pricing it any higher in this economy, but I knew I could get at least 25% more at a showing. The sea glass piece was practically flawless...almost a pastel gray and very much unlike any gray I've ever owned before.

The aqua was a stunning piece also, and one that I know I probably could've sold for a bit higher (I did have a feeler from a local shop about doing a wholesale order including all 3 that sold...but an new Etsy customer beat them to the punch)

I have a pretty light green piece with a hint of yellow...probably an older shard of depressions glass. It's nicely tumbled, with no sharp edges and slightly bigger than a dime. I'll try to add a picture here on the blog of the piece under a black light... the piece is very dramatic under a black light (maybe it's an older piece of Vaseline glass??)

Severe winds are pounding us in southern NJ (and probably throughout the state and the whole east coast) These winds should have a dramatic effect on today's low tide and I'm trying to figure out how to get to the beach at low tide. The winds may push that low tide back a bit further and expose some of the shell beds.

Low tide isn't until 4pm today, which means it will be getting cold quickly at that time of the day and those 35-40 mph winds (with gusts reaching into the 50s) won't be fun to deal with.

Now if I can just figure out how to get the boys off the bus without me being there...hmmmm.

til next time...
R

New Slideshow -- My Kind Of Easter Egg Hunt!

2009-02-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

I created a slideshow of what the perfect Easter Egg Hunt would be...for me, at least.

Sea Glass... by creationsbyrobin

Just a few of my recent handmade sea glass jewelry creations. Wouldn't it be great to find all of these beautiful ocean gems on the beach during one stroll?
I'd have to pinch myself, because I would probably be dreaming...this collections a wonderful egg-shaped beauties took quite awhile to collect ~ yes, I know there's a heart shaped necklaces included~ I thought it would look great to see them altogether in one image...thus the slideshow....enjoy!!

Goodbye Electric Blue... Going Sea Glass Hunting Tomorrow!

2009-02-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

It started out as a mystery. I wasn't even sure if it was a very dark aqua or a turquoise...plus it had a great star-burst marking that I couldn't place.

Then a lucky break... I happened to mention Richard LaMotte's book, "Pure Sea Glass" in my Etsy listing and I found out he was an Etsy member and he reviewed the shard of glass using the images in the listing (which was quite a thrill!!!)

Then, through a new sea glass collector's group I joined online, I received a couple more thoughts on what the shard may have been originally and one of the thoughts also proved to be very intriguing.

But now, I've passed the mystery onto another sea glass collector. My Electric Blue Sea Glass Necklace has left for it's new home in New York and I hope that if the mystery of the piece is ever solved, the story is shared with me. Goodbye Electric Blue!

On a brighter note, the weather has turned more like early spring rather than deep winter (at least for this weekend) on the Jersey shore. Baseball tryouts and puppy-sitting kept us off the beach today, but my hubby said he's getting up early and hitting the beach tomorrow.... it would be great to add a couple of jewelry quality pieces to the collection, but I'd be thrilled to see a yellow of orange piece of sea glass... my sun-catcher needs a couple new colors added.

Hopefully he'll take the camera with him and take a few photos of the beach while he's out there... I'll add a few images sometime during the day tomorrow...hopefully a couple will be of new additions to my sea glass collection!!

til next time...
R

Goodbye to the Ocean Waves Bracelet, No beachcombing this weekend...again and a cool group for those that love Sea Glass...

2009-02-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Ocean Waves bracelet that is shown a couple of blog entries earlier has sold and it's staying in the Garden State. I really loved this piece of sea glass jewelry and didn't get to take images during the best light of the day. The weather wasn't cooperating the day I took the photos and I was forced to shoot in morning light, rather than the prime afternoon sun (the afternoon was forecast to be cloudy and the weatherperson was right)
The images of the bracelet really didn't do the piece any justice at all, but I think the buyer is going to very surprised when she sees the bracelet in person. I'm not really a bracelet person, otherwise I would have loved this sea glass creation for myself!

Weather in the mid 20s with gusting winds kept my hubby of the beach yesterday and the weather isn't much better this morning. It will go into the 40s later today, but on Super Bowl Sunday, there's little chance of finding him on the beach today : )

For anyone interested in sea glass...those that collect it, or use it to decorate, make jewelry or mosaics, check out the banner at the top right hand corner of this blog. The group has many members of the North American Sea Glass Association and the wealth of experience in this group is unbelievable! It's a free group and the members freely offer their knowledge and experiences working with and collecting sea glass... if you love sea glass, check this site out ( Is pend hours on the site each week, just reading all the stories in the forums)

til next time....
R

New Sea Glass Jewelry, A New Slideshow and Possible Beachcombing Weather this Weekend...

2009-01-29T13:44:00.000-08:00

I finally finished taking photos and cropping images of a couple of my new pieces of sea glass jewelry. I still have a couple more pieces to crop, but my photo program was having trouble loading pictures...I'll get the remaining items on the blog shortly.

This is what I transferred to my computer before the program faltered.... the top piece is a very pretty gray necklace and the bottom image is a soft aqua teardrop necklace.

I finished a new sea glass slide-show yesterday (before I cropped the new pieces...of course) and the slide-show can be found in the right hand panel of the blog. It contains some of the newest pieces of sea glass that I have for sale in my shops.

Could it be possible that Saturday may offer a possible shot at hitting the beach in hopes of finding some new beach glass? I'm not holding my breath, but I really am hoping to get out there this weekend. I'll bring the camera and hopefully have something to show on the blog come Saturday night.

til next time...

R

More Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry, Snow, followed by a downpour means no beachcombing again today...

2009-01-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

Since my last blog update, I found the time to make a few another bracelet and a few more necklaces. I also had the time (and enough brightness) to take photos and go through another jar of sea glass, where I found another green heart-shaped piece of sea glass.

The heart-shaped green piece has already been added to my Etsy shop and I'll probably add either the cornflower bracelet or one of the necklaces to my Etsy shop. I would also like to add another sea glass piece to my ArtFire shop, but the views have been so sporadic there (and on 1000Markets) and I'm wondering if having a 2nd shop is even worth the effort. The last piece I added to ArtFire picked up 2 immediate views while it was sitting on the front page, when I promoted via Twitter, it was viewed another 5 times and then picked up 2 more when I did a little more promoting on a couple of social networking sites...for a total of 9 views...and that's where the view count sits 3 days later.

My son's are wakening up to a disappointing sight this morning... the 3-ish inches of snow that fell overnight is quickly being washed away by the heavy rains that are currently coming down. The mess on the roads has given them a delayed opening of 2 hours, but once again, living so close to the ocean continues to keep any kind of snow accumulation away. So far this winter they've been limited to a small snowball fight with a brief 1/2" of snow early last week... oh well, maybe February will provide them with a at least one decent snowfall that may stick around for 24 hours?

Despite a new moon on Monday evening, the driving rain will keep me indoors today, so another lost opportunity for new sea glass : (

Maybe it'll give me the chance to run out to the store and grab some supplies I need to build a light-box for my jewelry picture taking.

The images above are the cornflower bracelet and I'll be adding a couple images of the new necklaces as soon as I finish cropping the photos...

til next time...
R

Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry...hot off my crafting table!!

2009-01-25T05:06:00.001-08:00

Everything fell into place yesterday. My boys played quietly in their room, allowing me to spend 3 or 4 hours to create a few new items. Mother Nature played her part and allowed enough sun to come through the early morning clouds and I was able to take photos.

Already on Etsy is another honey-brown heart shaped necklace and a cobalt blue pair of earrings (2 pieces of cobalt blue & one frosty clear piece of sea glass on ea earring) Both of these pieces can be found in my etsy mini found in the right hand panel.

The other items I finished yesterday are a "Cornflower Frost Sea Glass Earring Stack", a "Cobalt Blue Sea Glass Bracelet" and two new sea glass necklaces... a "Soft Blue Mermaid's Tear Sea Glass Necklace" & a "Soft Seafoam Green Sea Glass Necklace"

One of the necklaces will go into my ArtFire shop, the remaining three pieces will probably all go into my Etsy shop.

Another no-go as far as beachcombing goes today... it's much colder than yesterday, but not nearly as windy (it's always something that keeps me off the beach), but I think hubby is itching to get out there, even if only to walk a few blocks... I'll sit with a cup of tea and dream of finding beautiful ocean gems in the tropics...lol

'til next time...

R

More Heart-Shaped Sea Glass Jewelry, Good-Bye Green Heart, Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry

2009-01-24T04:59:00.000-08:00

After a day sitting in my Etsy shop, the bright green heart-shaped sea glass necklace is moving to a new home. Like her sister piece, the cobalt blue necklace, this pretty green heart is going overseas...Finland to be exact.

The honey brown shaped heart necklace (image above) has been listed in my ArtFire shop (link in right hand panel) and the frosty clear heart shaped necklace will be listed in my Etsy shop later this morning. The frosty heart piece is quite pretty and one that can be worn throughout the year and can be worn in almost any situation.

I'm still waiting on a sterling silver component before I can begin making bracelets and with today's weather (overcast and windy...wind chills expected in lower 20s) it would be a great day to sit at my crafting table with a cup of coffee and create.... maybe I'll put together a silver-plated bracelet later this morning (and hope the sun can sneak thru for a half hour so I can snap a few photos)

I know my hubby is itching to get to the beach to do a little hunting... it looks like tomorrow may be the better day. Maybe he'll find a few gems that I can share images...

'til next time...
R

New Sea Glass Necklaces... Cobalt Bracelets, Cornflower Blue Earrings...

2009-01-22T05:27:00.001-08:00

The weather was cooperating yesterday and I was able to finally take photos in natural light.

I'm still transferring some of the images to my computer, but I did get two pieces cropped and into my computer for loading.

The necklaces are made with pieces of sea glass that are in the 1/2" in length range. Some are a bit more some are slightly less. The cobalt piece was listed last night and sold earlier this morning. The green piece has yet to be listed and it will go into my Etsy shop later today.

I also have a clear/frosty heart shaped piece and a light brown heart shaped piece that will be listed either this evening or tomorrow. one of the pieces will go into my ArtFire shop, probably the frosty clear/white necklace.

I've already begun working on a cobalt blue bracelet and have been contacted about cornflower blue earrings... I'll post images of everything as each project is completed (hopefully Mother Nature will give me a bit more sun in the afternoon over the next few days)

'til next time...

New Sea Glass Creations for Valentine's, Sea Glass Works in Progress

2009-01-21T05:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, just when I thought I was done with making Valentine's Day items, I've gone ahead and made a few more...

With the extremely cold weather keeping us indoors (and very little snow to give us incentive to get outside) I decided to spread me sea glass out over my crafting table last weekend. The game plan was to organize the pieces that I plan on using in my crafts (and for myself) to see what I had and what I wanted to look for...either in my collection (yes, my collection is separate from my crafting) or from some of the reputable sea glass lovers/collectors that I've been fortunate to meet on the internet or at the Sea Glass Festival.

Upon spreading out my gems, I found a few "heart-shaped" pieces in various colors and thought they would make cute little charms. I wire wrapped a few and put them on a sterling silver chain and I'll add them to my Etsy shop (and maybe one to my ArtFire shop) as soon as I get photos... and the sun has decided to come out today, so hopefully I'll have some really good light this afternoon to grab some images.

Later this weekend, I'll be wrapping a couple of white/clear pieces of sea glass and they'll be used as the pendant on necklaces and I'll also be adding a couple of cornflower blue and cobalt blue bracelets to my shops... perhaps a matching set of earrings also.

With no football on this weekend...finally... I should be able to get my hubby to drill a few of my remaining aquas and turquoise pieces and hope I can put together 2 bracelets of the 4 main blue colors of sea glass... I say hopefully, because I really want to treat myself to one of the bracelets and may keep it all to myself if I only have enough pieces for one.

No new images to share right now...hopefully later today... so I'll share an oldie, but goodie that really helped me get started selling sea glass online...

'til next time...

R

New Sea Glass Jewelry, Beachcombing in January, What's New in My Shops...

2009-01-18T04:01:00.000-08:00

Let's get the beachcombing out of the way right from the start... hitting the beach in the winter takes some serious motivation. I've only been out a few times this winter, but my hubby tries to get to the beach more often.
So far January has proven to be a rather frigid month in New Jersey and the possible days to go out haven't coincided with the tides. Therefore, the pain of getting about in single digit temps, with wind-chills near zero or below, just isn't worth it.
The only day this year my hubby went out, was cut very short by wicked winds that made hunting sea glass almost impossible. His 10 minute walk on the beach yielded a couple of mediocre greens and 1 brown piece, along with a couple of unfinished pieces of browns and amber. Certainly not worth the exposure of skin to the elements.

Yesterday, I listed a pretty Kelly Green necklace to my Etsy shop (along with a few regular glass bead Valentine's Day-themed pieces) The new green necklace is a very dark green, well tumbled... smooth and frosted with great markings from it's time spent in the sea.
Later today, I'll be adding another awesome piece of Gray sea glass to one of my shops (probably Etsy, possibly ArtFire)
The image of the gray sea glass necklace is shown above and this very light gray shows a lot of markings, is very smooth and nicely frosted. Followers of my blogs (I also have a 2nd blog at http://dabblewithcrafts.blogspot.com ) may know that gray sea glass falls into the extremely rare color category and finding a gray piece is about 1 in 2,500 pieces.
This is only the 2nd gray piece of sea glass that I found to be in jewelry quality. I did have a request to drill this piece for a custom necklace, but I just couldn't bring myself to put a hole in such a beautiful piece of sea glass, so instead I wrapped the ocean gem in sterling silver wire.

I'll be sitting down to work on a blue sea glass bracelet, probably later today. I'm not sure exactly what color blue it will be, as I have some beautiful turquoise, cornflower and cobalts available. I may make a combo bracelet of all the blues or just stick to one color...whatever I decide, I'll post some images as soon as I take photos (the blue sea glass pieces just don't last very long in my shops)

'til next time...
R

Sea Glass Slideshow, Beachcombing in January, Works In Progress

2009-01-14T21:43:00.000-08:00

I added a new Sea Glass Jewelry slide show to my blog. It can be found in the right hand column about halfway down the page (just under the banner for 1000Markets) I'm hoping to keep this slide show current and only include pictures of items that are still available in one of my shops. Of course, that's easy to say right now in January, but when it comes to the busier months, I'll try to do me best keeping it updated with new creations and removing any items that have gone to a new home.

Beachcombing in the new year has been very tough. The weather has not been kind to anyone who has planned a walk along the beach and the slower stroll needed to to examine shell beds for sea glass have been nothing short of brutal. With temperatures in the low teens and single digits in the early mornings over the next few days, I'll opt to sit in my warm house with a cup of coffee or tea and dream of walking along the beach on some Caribbean Island.

Hopefully, there will be a bit of a break in the weather over the next week or so... I'd love to get back out on the beach to see if the tides left anything behind for me. I'm also planning on checking out a new spot on LBI, that was recommended by a couple of hobby-type sea glass collectors. One of these weekends, I'll have to give a couple of these tips a try.

My new shipment of sterling silver should be arriving this weekend (so says the FedEx tracking device) and I have quite a few pieces of sea glass ready for bracelets, along with about a half dozen wire wrapped pieces that will become necklaces.

I'm still not sure what I'll be doing with the pieces of red sea glass I have. I hope to figure something out in time for the Valentine's Day selling season. I'll also have bracelet and probably earrings in both cobalt blue and the rarer cornflower blue. If the weather cooperates over the weekend, I may be able to take photos to share on this blog, and perhaps have new listings in my shops.

The bracelet shown above, is a beautiful deep green bracelet that can be found in my ArtFire shop. There is something about those deep green ocean gems that I really like. I'm not sure if it's the colors of the polished shell pieces that make the dark green standout even more, but it really is a nice little bracelet.

Any who...stay warm & check back in a few days for another update!

til next time...
R

Electric Blue, Opinions, New Items & Works In Progress

2009-01-10T19:16:00.000-08:00

In my other blog ( http://dabblewithcrafts.blogspot.com) I mentioned that my Electric Blue Sea Glass Necklace has received several opinions as to the origin of the shard of glass used in the necklace.

I have already blogged about Richard LaMotte's (author of "Pure Sea Glass") thoughts about the piece coming from a possible 19the century antique art glass piece. In his book, there is an example of the art glass decoration that he is referring to and it certainly does look like the markings on the picture of the decoration and sea glass to be very similar.

I also received a few opinions on a sea glass site I belong to on the internet and one opinion comes from someone that I would consider an expert in the area that this piece came from. This long-time collector said she has seen a few pieces in this color and said it comes from decorative windows found in Victorian houses.

Understanding that neither of the two experts in the sea glass field have actually held the piece in their hands and are only stating their opinions by viewing 5 images I used to list my necklace on Etsy, makes this even more interesting. A large part of me wants to cancel the listing and hold onto the piece until next October's Sea Glass Festival, in hopes that I can bring it to both for further observation (and bring it to a few of the other far knowledgeable collectors for more opinions) The Electric Blue Sea Glass Necklace can be viewed in my Etsy mini in the right hand column of this blog...to see the rest of the images (and maybe add your thoughts of origin to the mix) click on the piece to see the 4 other images.

On the other hand, maybe not really knowing what this beautiful blue piece of sea glass was in it's former life, gives the necklace an air of mystery... and perhaps the future owner of this creation would enjoy the search of unlocking the answer to the mystery.

Pieces like this come few and far between and these are the pieces that make going out on the beach in sub-freezing temperatures worth the effort. I never know what I'll find on the beach and the allure of finding another beautiful piece, one filled with questions that may never be answered... but have much speculation, makes each hunt so exhilarating.

Sea glass hunters know there is an incredible gem sitting just off the surf, tumbling around, waiting for the tide to drop it on the beach. It may not be that day and may not be that stretch of beach, but one day it will present itself when the time is right and hopefully, I'll be there first to claim it.

I'm still waiting on my shipment of sterling silver and I'm planning to do a little drilling to make some bracelets and possibly some earrings (all sea glass of course). I have a few teal pieces that don't match up well enough to make earrings with, but I'm holding hope to find enough to make a bracelet and the same goes with the smaller red pieces I have. There is a bunch of cobalt blues and cornflower blues that will be used in some creations, along with some very frosty clear/white pieces and a handful of greens.

And as always, I'll try to post images before the items are listed in my shops! Pictured above is a very pretty lavender sea glass necklace...

'til next time...
R

Handmade Sea Glass Jewelry, Online Shops

2009-01-08T06:52:00.000-08:00

It seems that having a couple of blogs and several shops has made it tough to find some of the sea glass creations I've made recently. I've received a couple of private emails as to where a specific piece can be found and i understand that part of this is my fault.

I know that I had planned on listing certain items in specific shops and then changed my mind, placing them elsewhere. So without further ado... here is what I have currently listed and where it can be found...

Etsy.com- Most of my sea glass jewelry is listed at this site... the most recent listings are-

Deep Citron Necklace (pictured above)

Ocean Pastels Bracelet (4 soft greens and blues are the focal "beads" on this bracelet)

Tropical Teal Necklace (the images do this necklace no justice at all...a beautiful necklace)

Lavender Mist Necklace (another beautiful necklace)

Lavender Bracelet (5 pieces of soft lavender... another where the lighting just didn't help to show off this piece)

My Electric Blue, Soft Aqua and Soft Green necklaces are also on Etsy, along with several more sea glass pieces.

On 1000Markets-

Seafoam Necklace - is the only newer piece added to the shop.

I also have a Green and Brown earring stack pair, a Deep Brown Bracelet and A Blizzard Necklace (wire wrapped frosty clear/white ocean gem w/ a sterling silver chain)

and on ArtFire (which is where the confusion started)

Sunny Seashore Necklace(wire wrapped greenish-yellow piece of sea glass)

Treasures from the Sea Bracelet (5 deep green pieces of sea glass with polished shell chips)

CreationsByRobin is the name of my shops at all three locations and if you are looking for a specific piece that you can't find, you can reach me either through either of my blogs or at any of the sites.

I still have about a half dozen necklaces waiting to be listed. I'm either waiting for my next shipment of sterling silver chains or for the sun to finally make a long enough appearance so I can take pictures (maybe today???)

To all that weren't sure where a certain piece was hiding (especially some of my customers that are like me...not very internet savvy), I hope this clears everything up. Feel free to ask, if you are still uncertain about specific pieces or have a custom piece you are interested in.

Thanks for all your support in 2008!

'til next time..

Sea Glass on ArtFire, New Sea Glass Creations...

2009-01-05T21:49:00.000-08:00

In my previous blog, I mentioned placing a pale lime green necklace in my Etsy shop. After reviewing my sea glass item in my Etsy shop, I decided this pretty piece may be better suited to be the debut item in my ArtFire shop.

My Etsy shop has quite a few pieces of sea glass jewelry, so rather than add another to the mix, I thought it would be better to spread the greens around to different markets. I choose ArtFire over 1000Markets for this piece because my views at 1000Markets have been very low and in my first full day on ArtFire, my single listing received 13 views. Compared to my last listing on 1000Markets (also a green sea glass necklace) I'm impressed 13 views in one day vs 3 views in more than one week.

I also like the idea of ArtFire offering a feed of my Etsy shop, and a more important back-link to my shop on Etsy. Plus ArtFire offers the ability for me to see where my views are coming from, so I'll now if advertising campaigns are working, when they work best and how they ended up in my ArtFire shop (and hopefully this will lead to some Etsy traffic via the back-link)

For a picture of my debut listing, check out the image in my previous post or click on this link and go to my ArtFire shop directly... http://creationsbyrobin.artfire.com/

My new sea glass creations are quite a few wire wrapped pieces that are waiting for a new shipment of sterling silver chains and I have several pieces of drilled sea glass (all dime shaped or slightly smaller... including a pretty red piece of sea glass) and I'll hopefully start placing those in my shops over the next week or so.

If you happen to head over to my ArtFire shop, let me know what you think. There's only one listing at this point, but the shop is a work in progress and I'll be adding a sea glass bracelet(see image above) to that shop tomorrow. For anyone interested in my 1000Markets shop, I have a banner linking the site on the right panel and I'm also CreationsByRobin at the 1000Markets site too.

'til next time...
R

Sea Glass, New Items, Works in Progress...

2009-01-03T23:10:00.000-08:00

Brutal winds, cold winter weather and sick children have kept me off the beach this past week. No new pieces of sea glass to report and not much of a chance of getting to the beach tomorrow either.

But being home with the boys has given me the opportunity to take some pictures of finished pieces and list a few in my shops (along with some plain old : ) glass jewelry piece for Valentine's Day). A few of the pieces have already made it into a few treasuries on Etsy and they've been hearted by a few Etsy members.

The new item above is a unique shade of green, almost a greenish-yellow and very petite and feminine. This necklace will probably head into my Etsy shop, along with a new sea glass bracelet with 4 soft colored pieces.

The Gray sea glass necklace will head into my shop on ArtFire.com and I hope to add a bracelet and a few regular glass jewelry pieces into that shop this week. As for the Citron piece...I'm not sure where that piece is going just yet, perhaps ArtFire also...my etsy shop is quite full of sea glass creations.

I have a few drilled pieces that I'm thinking about using for another bracelet and a few heart-shaped pieces that I'd like to make something with for Valentine's Day, along with a small supply of red sea glass that may end up on a piece or two.

Hopefully I'll have a few more pictures to share with the next blog...

til next time...

Deep Aqua Sea Glass, Comments from Author Richard LaMotte

2008-12-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

So tonight I'm sitting on Etsy, commenting on a few interesting treasuries and thanking the Etsy members that put two of my items into their new treasuries and I received an interesting convo. The convo referred to a comment I included in my item description for the item pictured above. The comment was...

"In the book "Pure Sea Glass", Richard LaMotte suggests that deep aqua pieces are found once in every 1,000 pieces...that ratio puts a deep aqua piece in the extremely rare category.

I've never come across a piece of aqua like this before... even at sea glass festivals! The marking suggest quite a bit of exposure or perhaps it is a shard from an antique glass art piece. This piece is quite rare, with lots of personality and a true one of a kind piece of handmade jewelry!"

Well, tonight I come to find out that the author of Pure Sea Glass, Richard LaMotte, just happens to be a registered member of Etsy! Mr LaMotte took a look at all the images I used in my listing and this is what he had to say...

"Robin,Thanks for the mention about my book in your description for that stunning blue pendant you recently posted. I took a closer look at your photos and think you really do have an extremely rare shard. While studying glass at the Sandwich Glass Museum years ago I saw a bold blue they called "Electric Blue." It looks a lot like it. If you look on page 175 of my book you will see a slightly lighter version shot in bright sunlight and it has a similar pattern. Yes, what you have is a piece of tableware and a real beauty. For $50 its a steal!

Best of luck - Richard LaMotte"

Now how cool is that! Richard LaMotte and his wife, Nancy (who happens to be an incredible jewelry artist herself) are both experts when it comes to sea glass and to have him comment and practically authenticate my pendant via Etsy convo system is just so awesome (now I really hope this piece doesn't sell...lol)

So now, I need to go back and edit my listing...removing my Deep Aqua color description and inserting "Electric Blue" in it's place.

I did take a look at page 175 in his book and sure enough, the markings on the piece seem to look exactly like those in the antique glass patterned or pressed glass piece shown on the page. Richard LaMotte mentioned in this chapter of his book, that these pieces were created in the 19th century, which makes the shard of sea glass on this pendant well over 100 years old!(and quite possibly near 150 yrs old)

So, not a bad little night... a couple of hearts, a couple of items (including my Electric Blue Sea Glass Pendant) placed in brand new treasuries and then an exciting convo from the author of what I like to call "the bible of sea glass"...not a bad little night at all!

'til next time...

Teal Sea Glass, Beachcombing for Sea Glass, New Listings

2008-12-30T08:55:00.000-08:00

The next sea glass piece to go into one of my shops will be the one shown above. I'm not thrilled with the images I have because they do little to show off the fantastic colors of this gem. Since today is a sunny day, I'm going to try and capture a couple of better images. The teal is really beautiful in the sunlight and I want to figure out how to show these colors better (unfortunately it is extremely windy, so shooting outdoors is out of the question today) I'm not sure where this piece will be placed and I'm seriously considering this one to be my first listing at ArtFire.

The weekend beachcombing adventure didn't turn out like I had hoped. The temperature on Sunday was close to 70 degrees inland, but at the beach it was cold and windy. We went beachcombing at low tide, in hopes of being able to pluck some gems from the shell beds at the edge of the surf... but the shell beds weren't there!

We walked for several blocks and couldn't find anything in the surf at the tide line, so we resorted to walking back at the high tide line, where we did find several large groups of shells and found a couple decent finds.

Although we didn't locate anything that could be used for my jewelry creations, we did find a couple small handfuls of sea glass, several cool shells, a old bone- perhaps from a dolphin, some driftwood and a quarter (which was funny because a guy with a metal detector somehow missed it...lol)

Despite a disappointing low tide and the harsh weather conditions, it was fun to get out on the beach with my hubby and youngest son and walk for over an hour. I don't get out there much any more (hubby does all the beachcombing in the winter months) but it was relaxing to hear the waves lapping at the shore and be out in the fresh air.

Everyday is a good day at the beach, some are much better than others and while this was a good day, I'll be waiting for the much warmer weather before heading back : )

My next few listings of sea glass will primarily go into my Etsy shop, but I am ready to start up my ArtFire shop and at least one of my remaining necklaces will be my first listing there. My next featured sea glass piece will probably be the Citron necklace and I'll be working on the images today.

til next time...
R

Dark Aqua Sea Glass Necklace, New Listings, Etsy, 1000Markets

2008-12-27T23:39:00.000-08:00

I was able to finish a few of my sea glass necklaces earlier today. The patterned Seafoam necklace, that I believe could have been from an antique glass art piece, went into my shop at 1000Markets.

The soft green and soft aqua pieces landed in my Etsy shop. The soft green really is a nice piece and I mentioned the versatility of the piece in yesterday's blog. The soft aqua is also a beauty and if photographed fairly well (considering the poor natural lighting I had to work with today) but I'll be looking to re-take images of the piece as soon as I have better light to work with.

The piece I'm very excited about is the dark aqua sea glass necklace (pictured above... not the best image, but shows a lot of detail). In more than 10 years of collecting sea glass, I've never seen a piece quite like this...in any size! Dark Aqua should actually be considered an extremely rare piece of sea glass because it's estimated that this color is found 1 in every 1,000 pieces (and remember, I've never come across one quite like this...even at Sea Glass festivals) The shard measures approx. 1 1/4" in length and it has a starburst pattern (that can be seen slightly in the photos) which may have been caused by severe weather exposure or it may be a pattern from a decorative glass piece from many years ago.

As soon as I can get better images, I may send a couple of pictures to a few collecting friends in hopes of having a better understanding of where this beautiful piece may have originated.

Right now, the images I have are okay, and I'm probably going to add the piece to my Etsy shop because of the sea glass following I have at the site. I would keep it for myself, but I sort of have my eye on the lavender necklace I made... the ocean gem is the prettiest lavender I've come across...perfectly smooth and so wonderful in sunlight.

As soon as I can get some of the other creations into the sunlight for their close-ups, I'll share them with this blogs followers before they get into my shops. Along with the lavender, I also have a dark citron, and a light gray necklace and each one is just sooo pretty!

'til next time...

Back to Work, New Sea Glass Creations & the Final Full Moon of the Year

2008-12-26T19:27:00.000-08:00

And just like that, Christmas is gone... well, almost gone. The new toys are scattered around the Christmas tree, the fridge is packed with leftovers and I finally have all of the shredded wrapping paper out of the house (oh, yea- the closet is empty again).

I finished packing up the last of my pre-Christmas orders and sat down at my crafting table with the reality of an almost empty shop on Etsy. So back to work I went.

I listed a new pair of frosty white sea glass earrings, and I have the necklace pictured above ready to list on Etsy at some point tomorrow. This new necklace has a beautiful piece of sea glass that was so difficult to photograph. It almost seemed like the colors of the glass changed from a soft green to greenish-blue to an almost-aqua depending on the lighting and background. If I didn't have a similar necklace already, I would keep this one because of the gem's versatility. I think this necklace will go with quite a bit of my wardrobe and it will hopefully do the same for whomever decides to add it to their jewelry collection.

I also wire wrapped about a dozen pieces of sea glass that will eventually turn into necklaces and make their way into CreationsByRobin online shops. I'm really excited about some of the soon-to-be necklaces. They all have great personality for sea glass enthusiasts... from unique colors, like Citron, Soft Blue, Light Gray, a Deep Aqua or Turquoise and one of the prettiest Lavenders I have ever come across. These plus a few small soft greens, & frosty whites...all showing great weathering signs that indicate a great deal of time spent tumbling around in the surf. Beautifully smoothed, egg-shaped and showing bubbles and "C" markings... just a great collection of jewelry-quality sea glass.

And it will be jewelry quality pieces that my family will be out on the beach hunting for tomorrow and Sunday. Tomorrow night marks the last full moon of the year and perhaps the last chance of finding great pieces of sea glass for the winter (barring a nor'eastern).

With the sun about as close to the planet as it gets throughout the year and the moon still fairly close, the tides should offer some prime beachcombing opportunities this weekend. My hubby will certainly be heading off to his small patch he calls "Cobalt Beach". He almost always finds a piece or two of cobalt in this small little area. With the unseasonably warm weather this weekend on the Jersey shore, we'll probably head to a few new areas in hopes of plucking a few beauties out of the surf... maybe I'll finally find my elusive first piece of orange or yellow sea glass this weekend.

'til next time...

Articles on Crafting

2008-12-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile , I sit down and feel like writing an article. quite often, I pair my love for crafting with my love of writing. Here are a few of the crafting articles I've submitted to be published on the Internet...perhaps a few would make good reading over the holidays.

My very first crafting article was about Etsy.com...
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/424772/move_over_ebay_make_room_for_etsy.html?cat=24

Of course, my love for Sea Glass would lead to an article (or 2)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/418088/beach_glass_trash_or_an_antique_gem.html?cat=24

One of my favorite articles... A craft I knew very little about, but was surprised by how baby bags have been improved upon by the handmade community...
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/819899/buy_handmade_diaper_bags_created_by.html?cat=25

This article was created in hopes that the info would help a new crafter to have a successful, stress-free craft show-
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1134080/selling_your_handmade_items_at_a_craft.html?cat=7

This article is just a look at some of the behind the scenes of locating sea glass...
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1290738/beachcombing_for_sea_glass.html?cat=24

Just a few fun and hopefully informative articles. Maybe your craft will be the next I'll write about (and maybe it will feature your work...you never know )

Happy Holidays and a Healthy & Happy New Year to all!

til next time...
R

Sea Glass, New Blog, New Items

2008-12-22T00:25:00.000-08:00

When I first began blogging, my CreationsByRobin name was already taken on blogspot and since I wasn't an experienced blogger (and had no idea what I would really blog about) I ended up with dabblewithcrafts as the name for my blog.

I always wanted my Etsy shop name to be be in the address for my blog and since sea glass creations have become my niche in the jewelry category, I thought it would be a great idea to have a 2nd blog, one that I update once or twice a week... with much shorter entries than my usual blabber.

Just sea glass and me. New creations, creations in the works, tidbits on beachcombing, images of new finds, etc, etc.

So for a first post.... the hubby was drilling a couple of small pieces of beach glass for a new bracelet creation. Usually, he knocks out the pieces I lay out for him and he packs up the tools & drill and puts everything away.

Since I was sitting at my crafting table, trying to make a few pieces of jewelry, he decided to grab a few more pieces of sea glass and drill out a few for future projects. After a few pieces, I heard him mutter sh*t and asked him what happened (I thought he got a little electric shock) He came in with one of my small pieces of red sea glass...it was now in three pieces.

He checks the reds and all the rare colors very well, looking for imperfections in the glass, which he would obviously try to avoid with the drill. He said the piece looked perfect and hadn't applied any extra pressure...it just exploded.

Luckily he didn't get hurt, when the glass exploded, only the smooth edges grazed him and not the jagged interior edges. Who knows what kind of issues he would've had if he had been cut... anywho... were now short one piece of red for a future Valentine's Day item.

So that's it for the initial post. Ill be taking photos if it's sunny tomorrow and may have the new bracelet images to update this blog with.

'til then...

R