A Seaglassing Weekend

It's Labor day weekend and the east and west coasts are enduring passing hurricanes.
The surf is very rough here in New Jersey, and it's turning up the ocean floor. Rough seas, riptides, extreme tides usually equal "ocean treasure" opportunities!

On Wednesday, the shell beds on the beach stretched for nearly a block and the surf was filled with piles of shells...great for finding a few pieces of sea glass. Since Sandy tore thru the Jersey coast nearly 2 years ago, we haven't had shell beds like this on the beach, and the sea glass has all but disappeared.

But, we took advantage of the small crowds, hit the northern end of LBI and hubby and I hit the beds and found about 18 pieces of sea glass. My youngest son brought a nicely finished beer bottle top to us and found a few undercooked pieces. Hubby found a couple really nice greens and a few older browns, one looked quite old and very thick. But the biggest surprises were a few blues...one cobalt and one dark cornflower! They aren't jewelry quality, but they will look great sitting next to a window in a decorative jar.

On Thursday, we arrived at the beach and found that the tides had taken back all of the shell beds and despite a low tide approaching, she left hardly anything for us to search through. So we walked far north than we have before, to find a small area with a huge concentration of shells.

By the time we arrived, there were many people shifting thru the pile, most were looking for interesting shells, but some were searching for sea glass. Since this area was quite large, there was plenty for everyone to look thru, but most of the glass that was there seemed to have held alcohol in it recently (like maybe the night before?)For every 50 pieces we picked up, there was 1 keeper. People picked up anything they could find, calling it "sea glass", when in truth it could have been used as a weapon, or worse yet, cut a young child's foot, had they stepped on some of those shards.

The search was fruitless and I headed back, followed by my hubby and oldest son. As they made their way back, a wave washed a brown bottle top onto the surf, not more than 8 inches from my son's foot and hubby grabbed it. He almost threw it back, but said he could feel the chemical change that causes frosting. It was a good decision, because by the time he got back to our umbrella, the piece was entirely frosted, inside and out.

During the day, we did stumble upon a couple pieces of well tumbled, well-weathered sea glass, again, nothing jewelry quality, but nice for decorative displays. But as quickly as those pieces were presented to us as we walked the beach, the ocean would have just as quickly taken them back. Just as it had reclaimed it's shell beds from the day before.

Even though the ocean appeared much calmer on Thursday, the undertow was still strong and rip currents were still present. Be careful if you enter the water, especially if you are not in an area supervised by a lifeguard. Save me some sea glass and enjoy your long weekend!


'til next time...
R

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!

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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....

... 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

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 : )

The Sea Glass Generation

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

A few new pieces to share....

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?

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...

R

First on the Beach?? Beachcombing at Low Tide

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...

R

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

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

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

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

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

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...

R