Is It Just Me or.... Recent Observations on Sea Glass Collecting....

Is it Just Me or....

Has the prices being realized on the sale of sea glass gone through the roof? The economy has been just awful and from what I've gathered, I'm not the only sea glass jewelry maker that has been experiencing slower than usual sales. So what gives with the insane recent prices?

My hubby thinks there has been a huge number of jewelry-makers that have noticed that sea glass jewelry is a niche worth looking into. He's come across several listings on eBay where the sea glass is quite questionable (disclaimer- it's sometimes very hard to tell if some shards are authentic or not...but in most cases, he believes the sellers that are 100% legit do a great job showing their offerings to be authentic sea glass...and he questions those sellers that don't take quality pictures to be those to watch out for... he feels they are hiding something...Hmmm, tumbled, craft ???)
He's also noticed some rather questionable to blatantly fake pieces of sea glass jewelry over the last 4-6 months. Since he is a huge part of my operation (the main sea glasser, hole driller and has taken over the ordering of all supplies needed for my little biz) he has started to question people as to their knowledge of sea glass, where specific pieces were found and so on. He's gone as far to tell vendors that some of the pieces they are selling shouldn't be listed as authentic sea glass, rather be called altered sea glass because they've been tumbled, treated with some sort of oil, or they are just "undercooked".

Is It Just Me or....

Is everyone selling jewelry made with "sea glass" lately? I've come across several jewelry-makers that use several different types beads as their focal piece and lo and behold, there is the odd sea glass jewelry creation.

In some cases, the vendor remembers finding the piece at the beach when they were little, or on summer vacation. The answer flows freely, and they often have a story about walking on the beach with friends or family when they came across it. Most admit to not knowing much about sea glass ... until they found sea glass jewelry online or at a craft show and realized she had a great focal piece for a jewelry creation (and could get decent $$ for it).

But others know very little about sea glass, claim to have been given it, purchased it at a yard sale (?), but most likely checked out a site like Etsy.com, saw the prices being asked for authentic sea glass and they figured no one would know the difference between tumbled glass and authentic. Perhaps I give them too much credit... in many cases it looks like the packaged "stuff" that can be purchased from their local craft store for a few dollars. Or bought a cheap lot of sea glass on eBay, not knowing what they were buying.

In almost every case, the vendor knows nothing about sea glass and often, it's the greed of the vendor that gives them away. Instead of sticking with a common color, they go for the rare Red colors (because the asking price is usually quite high compared to a Heineken green) and figure their asking price of $25 or $30 for their "authentic" Red sea glass necklace will sell immediately. After all, I always find that sea glass jewelers only have red sea glass...and nothing else.


Perhaps all of the above is due to the fact that authentic sea glass is exactly as Richard LaMotte described for his book... vanishing gems. In New Jersey, pieces wash up on the beach almost every day, but they are usually the common colors.... Budweiser browns, Heineken greens, and Corona clear. The surf here isn't rocky, nor rough, and most of the sea glass we find is not jewelry quality (but still so much fun to find!) Every so often we come across a rare color shard lying in the sand, but with the exception of a few key sea glassing days, finding those rare colors are few and far between.

Searching for sea glass has become a more popular beach-going event than tossing a frisbee. In the past few years, the amount of people who seem to be looking for sea glass has more than tripled. And with the popularity of the "Vanishing Gems" comes the perceived value...and worse, what some people will resort to, to find sea glass before others. I've watched people with nets, scooping along the shell beds in the surf, sometimes within just a foot or less of other people!

Not everything I've observed over the last few months is a negative. I have viewed several gorgeous pieces of sea glass... the owners of the shards were more than happy to show me the "gems" of their collections. I have also found some of the new sea glass jewelry makers to share the same sea glass values that I have (authentic only) and a few of them are quite talented!

No longer is the sea glass on the beach left to myself and a few other collectors. Being one of a few offering sea glass jewelry is a thing of the past also. Despite dwindling supplies, sea glass continues to move toward the mainstream and with it, the value continues to go up. ( and in the last few months, the value has sky-rocketed) But I'm always confident that there is a gem waiting for me at the beach, and as always, you can find me at the beach, looking down in hopes of finding it.

'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