CreationsByRobin has Reopened!

It's been awhile...a long while and I didn't really know if I was ever going to reopen my shop on Etsy.com.

But a few recent trips to the beach began the itch, and an end-of-the-day find- a jewelry quality soft blue piece of sea glass, pushed me over the edge. I am back after an almost 2 year hiatus!
Hurricane Sandy left the Jersey shore battered and it has recovered nicely. Sandy has hidden all the sea glass, but when the ocean decides to expose the hiding places, I hope to be there...and continue to share them with you and hopefully, recycle them into something special.

I happy to be back, doing what I truly enjoy...walking the beach with my family, looking for ocean treasures!

Sea Glassing After A Full Moon

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

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

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