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

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

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