2014 Sea Glass Festival - Cape May, NJ

I haven't had much to blog about recently. My work schedule and the weather have not cooperated much. And moving into a bigger place, has taken up much of my free time... tho I did find a couple pieces of sea glass that had been tucked away (aka- forgotten about)

My bro-in-law reminded me on Facebook about the NASGA annual Sea Glass Festival because it is "down the road" in Cape May, NJ this weekend! I would have totally forgot...so thanks Tom!

The festival is held this time every year and they are back in NJ in 2014. The Cape May Convention Ctr, is hosting this year's event and the doors open at 10am until 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. The festival is opened to the public and there is a $5 admission.

If you are into sea glass, the incredible ocean treasures that are on display will just blow you away. There is a shard of the year contest, where collectors put up their best finds and the winner collects (I think) $1000! In the past they had guest speakers discussing everything from the history of pieces of glass, to their personal preferences and conditions for finding sea glass.

There displays where sea glass can be looked at and an area where vendors may have sea glass and sea glass creations for sale... some of the items displayed are truly amazing!

My hubby and I will be there tomorrow, strolling among the crowds (last couple times I went, the people were 4 and 5 deep at the tables) and hopefully getting a chance to talk with a few sea glassing friends from the groups and forums to which we belong. If you happen to see us, come up and say Hi!

'til next time...
R

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

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