My 100th Etsy Sale!

Yay! I made my 100th Etsy sale earlier this week! When I first started selling on Etsy, my goal was to make a hundred slaes. I never thought that I reach my goal before the end of my first year on the site.

Sale #100 went to one of my favorite customers....okay, all of my customers are my favorites : ), but this particular customer has come back to my shop a few times, so it was nice to reach my milestone sale with this customer!

Okay, my rant for the day.... Sea Glass

Not only have the prices sky-rocketed over the last 6 months (I call it the Etsy-factor) because the supply just doesn't meet the demand, now there are many people looking for these ocean gems on the beach.

It used to be that I would find a couple of people out on the beach early in the morning, looking to see what the ocean offered up overnight. Now it's more than a couple people, much more than a couple.

Now some of the things these newbs are doing to get beach glass is just wrong, in my opinion. Yesterday in NJ on LBI, there were two women with large nets, dragging the the shell beds in the ocean. Once they collected as much as they could carry, they walked out of the water and dumped the nets just beyond where the tide could reach it.

They sifted through the piles of broken shells, seaweed and pebbles, looking for and pulling out all of the sea glass in the piles. They even took pieces that were clearly not finished and with the exception of a few very jagged pieces that were no where near ready, they took their sea glass and walked it to their chairs. The piles were left behind, including those jagged edge pieces of glass (perfect for a child playing nearby to step ot even worse, fall on... not to mention the piles of broken shell, many with sharp edges)

Hopefully these net-pullers, aren't looking to sell these pieces to an someone who thinks they are getting authentic sea glass. In my opinion, these pieces weren't finished, lacking the beautiful frosting and the small marking that tumbling around for decades in the ocean will cause. To finish these pieces, more time is needed, but for those that are greedy and need nets to rob the gems of the extra time that they need in the surf, I can see these unfinished pieces spending some time in a rock-tumbler.

Disclaimer... CreationsByRobin will never alter any sea glass. I use only 100% authentic sea glass and when the Atlantic Ocean doesn't produce enough of the pieces I like to use in my handmade creations, I will buy from only the most reputable sea glass sources. These sources are all members of the North American Sea Glass Association (many are board members) The members of the NASGA are passionate about sea glass and would never think to alter a piece of glass for profit. It's either 100% authentic or it's still a piece of discarded glass/garbage.

I hope the net-pullers are on the beach today. My s/o is planning on bringing a couple of my nicest pieces of glass ( a red and a lavender) and with each one, he's going to show it to them. He'll tell them it just washed up right by his feet. That should drive them nuts...lol!

til next time...

R