So Much To Do, So Little Time to Sea Glass

The cold weather has finally hit hard on the Jersey shore, as it has in much of the country. And it has kept me indoors for the most part.

I did get to the beach one morning earlier this week, found the landscape of the beach has been changed by Mother Nature once again. What looked like a very promising high tide that left a thick shell cover was mostly destroyed by tire tracks in the sand (there are several fishing tournaments at this time of the yr) and of course, the tire track run right through the shell beds.

Above is an image of a partial "kick-up" from a olive bottle, probably an old wine bottle. The piece appears quite old, because the bottom is very thick and it well-weathered. Some of the other images were of recent finds over the last couple of weeks. That is a piece of pottery in the mix, the first that we have found in quite some time- my DH actually found two others on the same day that weren't nearly finished, so they went back into the sea. In the 3rd image, the soft blue bottle top was an exciting find...it's quite old, very thick and very frosted. Not sure what the bigger wide-mouth bottle top could have been in it's original life, but it sits with my bottle top pieces in a large decorative jar, near my living room window.

My shop has been quite busy, some items selling within hours of listing. Lots of views, people selecting items and my shop as a favorite...hopefully to return later for a purchase. I have several new items waiting to go into the shop. Hopefully, the weekend will be sunny, so I can take a few more pictures and get some new items listed

Necklaces are the leaders in sales, followed by anklets. As usual, the blues are the most popular color, followed by white and then red and yellow (yes yellow...I finally took pictures at the perfect time of day to capture the true color of one of my yellows!) Midweek seems very slow, with sales being made Friday-Mondays.

This is all part of my learning curve, as I figure out how the economy has affected buying habits and what seems to be working in the world of handmade items on Etsy.

Hopefully, I can hit the beach this weekend for a little and have something new to share in the next couple of posts. Stay warm and for those who have been pounded by heavy snow, stay safe!

'til next time,
R

Red Sea Glass for Valentine's Day

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!

A few new pieces of Hanmdade Sea Glass Jewelry

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...

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!

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

Sea Glass Slideshow, Beachcombing in January, Works In Progress

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