A Look Back At 2014

As December speeds us towards a New Year, I find myself thinking back over the last few months.

2014 started with CreationsByRobin still on hiatus. I really had not considered making more sea glass jewelry. The ocean had yet to offer up anything substantial and it seemed like my favorite hobby was dying a slow, painful death. Finding thin pieces of Rolling Rock green glass or Budweiser browns, was not going to be worth the effort...these pieces don't even age nicely...even when rounded by the tumbling in the ocean, these pieces of glass are very thin and when frosted, the glass is dull. Without the sea glass, going to the beach lost a little of it's luster...I mean, if I have to endure the bennies (ok, they're not all that bad) the least I can have is the excitement of possibly finding a nice piece of old glass washing up in the surf.

One one trip, we found something a bit older. Yea, it was brown, but it was thick and well frosted...an older piece of glass that somehow found it's way onto the beach. All of a sudden, the mediocre pieces were looking good (the thin, ugly pieces remained, just that...thin & ugly...lol) and we found ourselves heading to the beach a little more often. I'd like to say, seaglassing started picking up from that point. I would. But it wasn't the case.

What used to be a bad seaglassing day at the beach, was now a pretty good seaglassing day at the beach. A bad day was getting shutout totally...and that did happen often. But there was one other occurrence....the fires were getting stoked. I started fooling around with my sea glass again. It started when we moved into a new place and I wanted to decorate differently. I went with a beach theme. Driftwood, sea glass, pictures of the ocean and beach, lighthouses, etc. When it cam time to decorate my bedroom, the first thing I did was cut-out an area where my crafting table would go.

And just like that, I was back.The shop was reopened, I made new creations and some sales. As fall turned into winter and the vacationers and snow-birds headed for home or warmer climates, we found sea glass. The Atlantic still isn't turning out jewelry quality pieces on the beaches that I frequent, though there have been several that I could consider using for decorative creations. But I and my hubby (my hubby mostly) has been finding colors and unique pieces. Just before Christmas, he came home with 3 cobalt blues and two days later found a cornflower blue and part of an old white bottle top.

Somehow, the glass is finding it way back and knowing that the ocean tosses a few pieces onto the beach before she reclaims them in the next tide, will keep me dreaming of coming across the perfect piece of sea glass. And in the meantime, I will share some of the more special findings with anyone who loves what I create with these vanishing ocean treasures.

Looking ahead to walking the beaches in 2015. I'm excited to see where it will take me.

Happy New Year!

'til next time...
R

Dreaming of Sea Glass

Raining and overcast today on the Jersey shore. Saturday is change-over day and the traffic getting to and on LBI is going to be stop and go, so going to my favorite stretch of beach is probably a crazy idea. Instead I will add a new piece of jewelry or two to my Etsy shop, work on my blogs , pour myself a cup of coffee and dream of finding that elusive piece of orange sea glass. Or a few more like the piece below... : )

'til next time
R

My Trip to the Beach

For those who have never had the chance to follow my sea glass blog, just a little background info...

This blog was originally started as a way to introduce sea glass collecting and my sea glass jewelry creations. My blog entries were a sea glass diary of sorts and a way to promote my sea glass jewelry that I sold on Etsy.com and at various craft fairs, shows and local retail stores.
Currently, my shop on Etsy is closed and my jewelry-making days are just a hobby that I struggle to find time for. Sea glass collecting is something that has fallen by the wayside also, as trips to the beach have been rare since Super Storm Sandy. Since Sandy, sea glass on LBI has been rarer than my trips to the beach.

Until yesterday. For those that have followed this blog in the past, you may recall me blogging about an area my DH refers to as "cobalt beach". Cobalt beach is actually a stretch of beach, maybe 3-4 blocks long that has turned up an unusual amount of cobalt blue sea glass, along with several other uncommon colors.

So anyway, after a few disappointing trips to LBI, trips that left me and my family sad about the aftermath of Sandy, yesterday we headed back to stretch of beach that had once been our sea glass goldmine. The one time we visited this stretch of beach since Sandy, we only found a couple browns-not jewelry quality and not the type of browns that I hope to find, but brown sea glass nonetheless.

This trip to the beach started out no different... a large piece of brown that was finished on the outside, but the shard appeared to have been broken recently, so the inside needed more time for the ocean to finish the job. My DH referred to this piece as undercooked, so we found a safe area to return it to the sea. What I did find encouraging was this piece had some thickness to it and that could mean it was an older piece of glass.

For most of the day, I almost regretted returning that undercooked brown because there was nothing else to be found anywhere. Even the stretch formerly known as "cobalt beach" came up empty (again). As the crowds began leaving and the tide started pulling out, we gave it one more walk thru before we called it a day.

Despite several decent sized shell beds, cobalt beach was a disappointing bust... there was nothing to be found other than a few recently shards from recently broken Budweiser bottles (that were picked up and thrown into the trash bin). So we turned and headed back to our chairs and my son wanted one last dip n the ocean. While I kept watch, my DH continued on (in the opposite direction of what was once cobalt beach) & after a few minutes, my son and I went off in his directions where we found several large shell beds containing a lot of small shells, broken shell pieces and lots of stones and zero pieces of glass of any kind.

Shell bed after shell bed yielded nothing. Then my DH doubled back to showed me two pieces. The first was a clear white piece and it was nearly perfect. Well-weathered and frosted, only a recent chip in the edge kept it from being perfect. The 2nd piece was better. Another white, this one perfect and it's jewelry quality (rare for NJ). As a white piece of sea glass, it wouldn't fetch much as a piece of jewelry...but this piece has a tinge of amethyst coloring in it (I'm hoping now that it's been rescued from the sea, it will continue to turn color) Both of these pieces were found within 2 feet of each other, so we went back to the area and I found 2 pieces...one a frosty white- nothing to get real excited and the second a pale blue tear-drop shaped piece...weathered, slightly frosty and without a doubt, jewelry quality. One of the nicest jewelry quality pieces I have ever found on LBI. This one will become a charm for a necklace.
The craziest thing about both of these pieces, is they were found within 10 feet of those that my DH found and before we left the area, a thick chunky amber piece washed up!

30 minutes before we leave, the ocean presents us with a couple of the nicest pieces of sea glass that we ever found on LBI...and all 5 pieces were found with 10-12 feet of each other and there was nothing to be found anywhere else on the beach...go figure!

Hopefully, I can get images uploaded to the blog and show off my finds!

'til next time

Trip to the Beach

So, I finally broke down and decided to head over to LBI. Usually, I stay away until after Labor Day weekend. But the day was so nice, the ocean was calling and so was the urge to see if I could hunt down a piece of beach glass.

I went to a familiar area, found that most of the public parking that had been used for beach goers in previous years, now had a two hour time limit. Instead of having 75% of the spaces full of cars, there were a grand total of 5 cars using the 30-50 parking spaces... brilliant! Of course the side streets were loaded with cars and luckily, I squeezed into a small spot.
Now because of this brilliant decision to limit the parking places to 2 hours, the beach was quite empty. And the badge checkers were probably struggling to reach their quotas, so they were all over us as we hit the beach. "Do you need badges today?", "Do you have badges?" The bizarreness of it all fell somewhere between, I was the ice cream person ringing the bell and all the kids (badgecheckers) came running and I was going to a show and these teenagers in the yellow shorts were escorting me to my reserved seats.

So an enforced $15 donation to use a beach in the county I live in and spending several minutes driving up and down streets looking for a parking space because of some brilliantly stupid decision to put a 2 hour limit on parking places, the day didn't start well.

And it didn't get any better... I thought I/we might have a shot at maybe finding something in the surf. The beach was loaded with shells, mostly broken and quite a joy to step on in bare feet. With the tide moving out and a promising shell bed slightly visible, I had hopes. Heck, for the first time ever, I was encouraged when I saw the net-lady nearby...and she had her net with her!

But it wasn't to be. I gave up after 45 minutes. I spotted nothing at all. My DH spent at least another 30 minutes in mid-shin deep water, walking through what I believed was a shell bed and he saw one piece of "heineken green" green glass that needed about a decade more of cooking before it was ready.. Most of the shell bed appeared to be broken shells (no large, whole shells were found) and what looked like washed gravel rocks.

I have plans to go to LBI next weekend for a family get-together and thankfully, it's in another town on the island, because it is highly doubtful that I will ever frequent the town that we went to today. I'm not sure what official had the brainstorm (or was it a brain-fart?) to implement a time limit on parking places, but I guess this person forgot that the reason why people go to LBI is to enjoy the beach and not to go shopping or dining out during the day- besides a large percentage of the stores look like they still have not opened their doors this season.

Sandy really impacted everything I came across on this trip to LBI. The crowds were sparse as they have seemed to be for a lot of the summer. So many stores never opened their doors and many places still look like they need renovations. The things that appeared to have changed, have changed for the worst and one of the most important draws for me, the sea glass, looks like it may be years away from coming back on the beaches that I have visited.

My next trip will be to the northern end of the island and hopefully, very soon, I can head over to the area my DH called "cobalt beach". At least it was a beautiful day....

'til next time...
R

Q & A on Seaglassing

Between work and my youngest son's extended baseball season (yes, he's now playing a summer/fall season for his 4th team of the year) it's been a long time between blog entries.

Over the last few months, we've been asked several questions about the "where, when, hows" of sea glass hunting. My hubby has mentioned that yesterday we had 3 different emails asking info about sea glass hunting when a hurricane is coming. So here are the many questions, and our answers.

Because of the impending storm, we'll go with these questions/answers first.

-Would I consider going out during the storm looking for sea glass? No absolutely not. Visibility will be poor, the winds will be unforgiving and you will be risking your life. Stay indoors until the brunt of the storm has passed.

-(with a hurricane in the forecast) When is the best time to look for sea glass?
I would go out prior to the storm's arrival and after the storm has clearly passed. Depending upon the strength of the tides, I would consider checking out the beach after the peak of high tide, and just before, during and after low tide. I would consider the same process AFTER the storm has passed, especially at low tide.

-Are there specific areas you will go to and will you be kind and share them? Yes, there will be and no, I don't tell anyone where our "special" spots are (they haven't been too special lately) Actually, anywhere that you have found nice pieces of sea glass in the past will probably be a good place to check after the storm has passed.

Final thoughts on this storm... If you do not have a profound respect for the ocean, then you really have no business being on the beach just prior, during or just after this storm. The sea reclaims what it has left behind, and has no problem grabbing you if you happen to be there. If you don't understand the tides, their habits and histories, please stay off the beach until it is safe.
We live on the coast, and we are concerned about the damage this storm may bring. As sea glassers, we are excited about the prospects that the ocean might stir up. The potential of finding sea glass that has been tumbling around the ocean floor for several decades is exciting... but the damage to the dunes and beach front homes can be devastating. If you are planning to go out...be smart and be safe!

Other questions that we've received during the last couple of months...

-Where is the best location for sea glass? While we've never been there, word of mouth indicates the best sea glassing areas is "Glass Beach" in Fort Bragg, Ca. Glass Beach was at one time, a garbage dump. We've been told that the garbage was dumped on the beach, set on fire, and the tide took what was left. We have been shown several pictures of the surf, and the amount of glass (and the amazing colors) is breath-taking. (the top image is from Glass Beach and the photo is taken by Jef Poskanzer)
Puerto Rico has some great areas that often yield some incredible finds. Researching an area's history will often lead you to areas where you may have success. One such area exists in Puerto Rico, where a glass factory once existed. This companies specialty? They made beer bottles...red beer bottles. Red sea glass is very rare, but in this area, it is found more frequently.
We've also never been to the beaches in northern UK, but the beautiful pieces that are found there are usually found in the areas where glass factories existed decades ago.
The Great Lakes have been a very "hot" sea glassing spot recently and the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware beaches have also been "hot spots" in recent years. History also shows that by the time word-of-mouth gets to you about a hot spot and the time it takes for you to get there, everyone else will be there too. The best hot spots are those that you find yourself (that's why we don't spill the beans on our little hot spots) The spot that my hubby calls "Cobalt Beach" is a small stretch that frequently turns up pretty pieces of cobalt sea glass. It took him about 6 months to bring me to the supposed little hot spot, but we did find 6 pieces of cobalt blue sea glass that day, along with more than 50 other pieces

To answer most of the usual questions... I like to go out shortly after high tide, while my hubby prefers low tide. Despite the competition, I like going out during the warmer summer months. Hubby prefers the late fall, winter and early spring. Because of the brutal winds and cold temps in the winter, the amount of time he can spend on the beach is limited and he hits specific locations that have been successful in the past. In the summer, I just go wherever and stroll the surf. When we go to the beach in the summer (to swim, sunbathe)usually produces common color sea glass, but my favorite piece in recent years, a very old piece of deep teal, was found in the surf... so you just never know when and where a beautiful gem is going to wash up.
The potential for great finds increases with the impending storm this weekend. Please be safe, be prepared, and go out to the beach with a partner after the storm has passed.

'til next time...
R

A Winter Day at the Beach

For early February, it was sort of a nice day on Thursday. High 30s, sunny and little wind. Considering the recent weather, and several high tide warnings over the early part of the week, I thought it would be a good time to take a stroll on the beach. So off to one of my favorite hunting spots on LBI.

It's amazing to me how different the beaches look every time I visit in the winter. During the summer, there is little change in appearance. But come the winter, you would swear you are standing on a different beach, even on a week-to-week basis. Yesterday's trek was no different...I was a bit stunned at how exposed the beach looked. The dunes in front of the houses were built up, but the beach was basically flat, allowing the waves a clear run at the dunes.

Flat beaches are usually not very good for sea glass hunting, especially when the high tide is way above normal. The flat beach, combined with a rough tide, usually means the sea glass ends up back in the water, rather than on the beach. And yesterday, with a small 2 block exception, this was exactly the case... clean beaches- no shells, no driftwood, no garbage, and no sea glass.

The small exception was several 8-10 foot wide "shell beds" that didn't make it back into the surf as the tide left. Most of the shells were broken pieces, and in a few of these beds were several pieces of sea glass. And interestingly, I found several pieces of sea glass as I walked from one bed to another (they were spaced out approx a 30 second walk from one another) In all, I found about 20 pieces of sea glass in that short span of beach and absolutely zero pieces anywhere else.

As I turned to make my trip back home, I stumbled upon a large piece of bright green sea glass, not more than 4 or 5 feet away from one of my footprints (yes, my feet were the first to travel along the high tide line) and remembered what a more experienced sea glass hunter told me years ago... always pay attention on the return trip, you're almost sure to find a few hidden treasures you missed on your first pass. By the time I had made my way back to the very first shell bed, I added another 15 pieces to my findings for the day.

Every day on the beach is a good day, some are better than others...
but I wonder how many pieces I would have found that day if there had been shell beds all along the beach, instead of just those 2 short blocks. Regardless, it was a very good day.

'til next time...
R