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

What a Great Time For Seaglass

What better time than a perigee full moon? Check out the post I wrote on another blog...

I will admit that I prefer a 4th quarter perigee. But when the moon decides to get this close to our planet, it doesn't matter what month it is (i will have to deal with the bennies and the summer wanna-be seaglassers)

It will be fun to watch hubby mess with the bennies, I'm sure he bring a red  or two with him and say he found them in an area that has nothing. Or maybe he'll just bend down right next to one of them and pretend that he just picked one up right next to where they are or where they just looked.  He's sooo bad, lol

Good luck to all that go hunting this weekend!

Been A Long Time....

Wow! Nearly 11 months have passed since my last entry.

I recently received a couple of emails about my sea glass jewelry and both of my sea glass themed blogs. I haven't done much creating recently, but I received an invite to be interviewed on another crafter's blog...lol.

I doubt my responses would make for an interesting interview, so I declined. But I am hoping my trip to the beach today yields a piece (or three) of sea glass treasure worthy of a jewelry creation!

I miss my blog and would like to thank the hundreds of visitors since my last entry. Here's hoping today's trip to the ocean leads to a blog entry tomorrow!

'til next time...

A Post-Labor Day Trip to the Beach

"nobody on the road, nobody on the beach, I feel it in the air, the summer's out of reach...." I always loved that song by Don Henley and it never fails to pop into my head every fall during my trips to the beach after everyone goes home for the year.

The day before my sons returned to school, we took a post-Labor Day weekend trip to the beach to enjoy a beautiful, sunny day. Out of habit, we always try to plan a beach trip around low tide and we arrived about an hour prior on this day and already found shell beds that had been left behind by the previous high tide. Shell beds are something that have been missing since Sandy tore apart the Jersey shore last fall, but there they were, several patches of shells spread out over a 4 or 5 block stroll on the empty beach.

While the boys tossed a ball around in the water, the DH and I headed off towards the closest of the shell beds...hoping. What we found was not what we were used to finding. In these shell beds we found quite a bit of what looks like washed gravel- perhaps gravel that once sat in the yards, driveways and walkways of many of the residences on LBI. These were rocks that are not normally found in the ocean. The shells that we found also seemed different, smaller somehow, almost like those that are found in the bay.

In the 2nd bed we came across, the DH found a smallish piece of Budweiser brown sea glass. Unlike most of the glass we found this year, this piece was actually sea glass. While it was a newer piece of glass, it was frosted and had spent a decent amount of time in the ocean. I was kinda excited because I began to think that maybe there would be a few "finds" among the shells and stones, but the only find for me on this day, would be my first sand dollar (believe it or not, I had never found one that wasn't damaged before) and I would go on to find several more on this day...but no beach glass.

My DH walked down to the area he refers to as "Cobalt Beach". In the past, this area had been the place for us to find rare colors of sea glass and some the most "choice" pieces we have ever found in NJ. If there was to be beach glass on the beach, it would be in this area
As my hubby got closer to the area, he found very large shell beds mixed with the same type of stones found in driveways & walkways. There were several larger sand dollars, but only one piece of sea glass- another Budweiser brown small piece.

It could be possible that these beds had contained sea glass and DH was too late. My DH did see footprints around the shells beds, but he also added that there weren't footprints in the middle of the beds, only around the exterior. So perhaps those that passed by earlier, didn't see anything worth stopping for or maybe they were just out for a walk. But these shell beds didn't contain the treasures we were looking for.

In the end, I did find my first ever sand dollar and the family spent the day together, relaxing on a quiet, beautiful day. It does seem like I may need to find a new beach hobby, because I fear that my days spent sea glass hunting on the beach could be over. It's a thought that saddens me, as every time I take a leisurely walk along the surf, I remember as a young girl, walking with my Dad, finding beautiful pieces of sea glass.
I will still walk along the beach with my sons, I will still keep looking for those shell beds and I'm sure I will continue to drift closer to them, keeping an eye alert for a shiny glimmer of green or yellow or blue, and I hope my boys have the chance to pass along this little hobby when they have children. I never thought that my hobby could end so abruptly and still have hopes that the lack of sea glass is temporary. But my gut feeling is that even white and brown pieces of sea glass will be a rare find

I am still on the hunt for that elusive piece of red sea glass, it's sad that if and when I find it, it probably will not be on a NJ beach  :  (

'til next time...
R

A thank you to Don Henley for a perfect post Labor day beach song...and for the towns that did everything they could to preserve the beaches

It's Been A Long Time

I have been away from this blog for quite a long time. Sadly, Superstorm Sandy has changed the face of seaglass hunting on the beaches I often frequent. Long Beach Island beaches were torn apart by Sandy. Even though the island has been successfully pieced back together, it appears that it may be a long time before my favorite sea glass hunting grounds begin to yield great pieces (and those great pieces were few and far between in recent years) Though we don't frequent the beach as often as we once did, we hope to get to the beach more often towards the end of the summer as the tourist season begins to grind to a close. Speaking of grinding to a close... my shop at Etsy.com has been closed for the time being. The joy of finding sea glass on the beach, spurred the idea of creating handmade jewelry with those finds. Sandy essentially closed the my favorite sea glass store and while, the store has reopened (the beach, the towns)the shelves remain barren. Maybe one day things will change...I'll keep looking and hopefully, I will have some new finds to post soon. 'til next time, R

Final Craft Show of the Season

Tomorrow, I will be attending the 1st Toms River Intermediate South Handmade Craft Show. Wow, that's a mouthful.

I think this show should be a very fun show to do because they are limiting the show to handmade vendors only. And there looks to be a lot of media support for the show. There has been radio coverage promoting the show, it's been all over Facebook and there will be several members of the EtsyNJ team in attendance.

I'm really hoping that the show promoters are able to keep this show re-seller free, us crafters can always use another quality handmade show in Ocean County for the month of December.

The Intermediate School is located at 1675 Pinewald Rd in Beachwood, NJ and the show will run from 10am - 4pm. I personally may not be able to attend because of prior work commitments, but my sons and hubby will be there to sell sea glass jewelry creations (hopefully, I can sneak away and attend the last few hours...lol).

So if you are in the area, and have some free time, stop in and say Hi to the EtsyNJ team members...and check up on my table and see what is going on. I'll be checking my blog during the day, so feel free to leave a comment, reporting on how my display looks...lol

Have a great weekend! 'til nest time...

R

Craft Show Results- Upcoming Sea Glass Festival

Earlier this month I did my first craft show of the year, the Beach Plum Festival. This show has been on my "A" list of shows after a few good outings.

Considering the economy, this year's version was pretty good. The weather cooperated, and there was a great deal of foot traffic wandering about. My booth was packed most of the day, as the locals had plenty of sea glass stories to share with me.

Sales wise, it was by far the lowest number of sales at this show since I began vending here. It seemed like people just were out enjoying the nice day. They spent a few bucks to sample the beach plum ice cream or beach plum muffins...but clearly, the economy has forced people to cut way back on their spending habits and I saw many people leaving the show empty-handed.

In previous years, the customers at this show began buying gifts for the holidays and it seemed like that wasn't happening this year. Those that visited my booth also didn't seem to have or want to spend the money they had. In fact, if I didn't offer customers the option of paying via credit card, I probably would have lost 5 or 6 sales.

In all, it was a pretty okay show...certainly not a waste of time. Plus, I had the chance to enjoy the beautiful day, while speaking and sharing sea glass stories with with very nice people.

Not a bad way to spend a September Sunday afternoon.

'til next time...

R

New Summertime Creations

It's been a while since my last blog entry. Hope you like a few of my
newest sea glass jewelry creations!

Hunting For Sea Glass? Today is the Day!

If you enjoy getting out on the beach in any weather to hunt for sea glass, then today and tomorrow are prime hunting days!

The full moon this weekend is a special one...one we haven't seen in a few years. The moon is currently closer to the earth than it has been in quite some time and this full moon is considered to be " a spring tides" or Perigee moon.

Remember your science classes back in elementary school? The teachers always mentioned that the moon affects the ocean tides. Well this moon will be responsible for a little higher high tides, and a much lower low tide. And while I have always found very good pickings after the high tide when the moon is a Perigee, it's the low tide that I am truly excited about.

The last time I went out during a spring tide's moon, the ocean had eerily pulled back some 20 or 30 feet from where the waves usually reach! I was walking around on the sand where normally, I'd be about mid-thigh deep in the water...talk about sea glassing opportunities! I came home with about 150 pieces of sea glass that day and it would have been so much more had it not been soooo cold and had low tide not occurred so late in the day.

So this afternoon, I'll be on the beach with my sons about 30 minutes before low tide, enjoying a semi-warm sunny Saturday, and waiting to see what the Perigee moon does with the tides. Hopefully, we'll come home with a few ocean gems today.

'til next time...
R

Going Shopping for New Supplies

Saturday morning I woke up earlier than usual. After my cup of coffee and a quick scan of my emails, I decided it would be a very good day to do a little "shopping" for some new focal beads for my jewelry creations.

"Shopping" for sea glass is something I look forward to, especially as the weather starts to turn away from winter and head towards spring. So on this sunny Saturday morning, I was off to a place where the prices for sea glass are the best....FREE!

It was still a bit overcast as I arrived at the beach, but as the sun climbed in the sky, the clouds quickly disappeared. The entrance onto the beach was proof of how hard a winter the NJ coast experienced this year. Heavy machinery had been moving sand around, trying to create new support dunes to keep the high tide away from the expensive beach-front homes.

Heavy machinery, moving sand from one place to another and any type of general repairs to the beach are often a tell-tale sign that today's shopping isn't going to be a very good one. As I looked up and down the beach, I knew that today's "shopping" trip was about to turn into a nice stroll up and down the beach and anything I found would be a bonus.

The beaches I encountered on Long Beach Island on Saturday were basically flat. One straight shot from the surf, right to the dunes. All of the fall preps that were created to protect the dunes were eradicated by the combination of rough seas and a brutal winter. Despite the efforts of of the city workers moving sand to shore up the dunes, much of LBI's dune barrier that protects the beach front homes are quite vulnerable to one good storm as we enter spring.

Flat beaches are terrible for sea glassing on LBI because the tide has very little trouble reclaiming anything it has left behind. The area of beach that was to the north of where the sand shifting was taking place did have a few decent collections of shells that tides had left behind. I was hopeful that there would be a few sea glass gems in the mix since my foot prints were the first on the beach, but there these shell beds were basically void of sea glass.

With the exception of a couple of undercooked larger pieces, only a couple of small Budweiser brown pieces were located. The nearby jetty yielded a well-weather, much older brown piece that looked almost red from a distance. After walking north several blocks, and only finding a couple more pieces- both older and nicely weathered, I turned back and decided I would try my luck to the south.... only to realize this was not going to be my lucky day. The beaches were absolutely flat and pristine...no garbage, no shells, no nothing. At least the walk was invigorating and I can say that my 75 minute beach walk was a bit of a workout.

So I came away from my shopping spree basically empty-handed. What I did find were pieces that I can't use for my handmade jewelry creations, but they were older pieces that have spent a great deal of time in the ocean and the best part is... the price was right : )

'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

Meet and Greet at Jersey Made

If you are still looking for a gift for a hard to buy for family member, friend, work mate, and they love the beach/ocean, then come on down to Jersey Made tomorrow night!
I will have a portion of my sea glass collection with me, along with wire to wrap pendants, and a few sterling silver chains.

Or you can bring a piece of sea glass and I'll create a custom wrap for you. I also have several new jewelry creations that I will be bringing with me, along with some pre-drilled pieces of sea glass, that can be used to create earrings, or bracelets.

Jersey-Made is located in the Mill Race Village section of Mount Holly, NJ and the meet and greet is scheduled tomorrow, Friday December 17th, from 5pm- 9pm. Stop in and talk sea-glassing and bring your prize "finds". We would love to hear your stories!

Hope to see you tomorrow!

R

Sea Glass Jewelry - When a Plan Comes Together...

I've had a few customers/sea glass hobbyists recently ask how I can come up with some of the jewelry that I have recently created. People innocently ask if I tumble my sea glass... if the question wasn't asked so very innocently, I'd probably be offended by the question. But knowing what kind of sea glass we find here in New Jersey (very angular), I can understand the inquiry.

Very few of the local sea glass jewelry vendors have the rarer colors in their inventory. The vendors that do have pieces with extremely rare colors, often charge quite a bit because it's probably one of the only pieces of sea glass they have in there collection of that color. And since they don't know if they will ever find another piece like that, they are going to get paid when that rare piece finally sells.

Recently, I have created several pieces of jewelry with red sea glass (the 2nd rarest color of sea glass) and with so many red pieces for sale, it's hard to imagine that my family and I could have found all of these pieces at the beach...and they'd be right in thinking so.

The fact of the matter is for some of my sea glass, I have traded, bartered and made outright purchases with reputable collectors that I've known for years. And even though I have these contacts from several locations all over the world, it sometimes takes months, and even years for some of my jewelry creations to come to fruition.

The "stack" necklace of blue and white sea glass had been a work in progress for several months. The final piece, a cobalt blue piece of sea glass was found last December on LBI. I had been hoping for a deeper cornflower piece to finish the creation, but the sea glass Gods never presented me with what I was looking for.

The red sea glass earrings that I recently sold contained a red piece of sea glass that I had put aside over a year ago! When one of my sea glass friends had sea glass to trade (well, trade & sell) and it contained a couple pieces of reds, I jumped on the opportunity. It wasn't exactly the shape I was looking for, but the sea glass Gods also don't take requests for size, shade, shape... believe me, I've asked many times (regardless, the customer that purchased the earrings seemed quite happy)

I have several pieces of sea glass in various colors for future creations. They sit in small jewelry boxes on a shelf above my craft table... jewelry puzzles, waiting for a missing piece to turn up. And when one does, to this long-time sea glass collector, it's a thing of beauty.

I love it when a plan comes together!

'til next time...
R

Beach Plum Festival- Island Beach State Park, NJ

One of my favorite fall events, The Beach Plum Festival in Island Beach State Park, runs this Sunday, September 12th. The showers projected for Sunday appear like they will hold off until late afternoon/early evening.

Last year's festival was well-attended, as evidenced by the huge customer lines waiting to purchase jars of Beach Plum jelly (sorry, I'm already turning down orders for a jar of the unique jelly...and I'll have my DH standing in line all day to fill family orders...lol)

If you opening weekend of the NFL doesn't thrill you , and you're looking for one more day at the beach, head over to Island Beach State Park (just south of Seaside) It's a beautiful state facility with miles of gorgeous beaches. Stop by my display if you come down and say Hi!


A new payment processor is about to come on the scene and perhaps pose a challenge to Paypal, the leading online processor. The company is still in pre-launch and is offering a decent promotion for members who join. Currently PayBox is offering a $50 sign-up bonus, and offering members to voice their opinions on what we would like to see from a payment processor.

http://www.paybox.me/r/ridethewave

At this time, they aren't asking for any financial info, just a name, email address, log-in and password and your in. Attracting possible more sales with a new processor is well worth the 60 seconds it took to sign up and verify my email address. Take a look and let me know what you think. http://www.paybox.me/r/ridethewave


Hope to see you at the show!

R

Saturday was a Beach Day...and there was Sea Glass!

This past Saturday was a rare day indeed. We arrived on LBI shortly before noon to see the mass exodus of renters, as they made room for the thousands of new renters just starting their vacations (yes Rt72, was backed up for miles, and luckily, the back roads were smooth sailing)

Almost always, this means a less than full beach and that is exactly what we found! Some fairly wide open areas made up of mostly year-round citizens of the island. The water was warm, and we were arriving smack in the middle of low tide...perfect for a little sea glassing!

While I watched my youngest venture out beyond the sandbar, my DH headed south to an area that has turned up some pretty pieces in past summers (DH swears that heading south on the island- no matter what part of the island we are on, offers the best opps for sea glassing)My DH came strolling back with 4 pieces of sea glass, and since our sons were just getting out of the water, we ventured north to check out the shell beds in the surf.

These beds turned up pretty much empty...a piece or two of small browns, a couple of "undercooked" pieces, nothing special...so north bound we continued, and as we passed a jetty we noticed a HUGE pile of shells along the jetty and up on the beach along the high tide line...and I mean H U G E! A few inches deep, and several feet wide...3 big collections that were apparently left behind by what must have been an especially powerful high tide...and this collection of shells was found nowhere else on the beach...and we walked several blocks and never even came across a sign that anything like this would be possible on this day (I had not seen a collections of shells on LBI in a couple years, and that was immediately after a severe Nor'eastern that coincided with a New Moon)

So as my oldest son and my DH checked down by the surf, my youngest son and I searched the largest of the shell beds... all while the tide was rising to reclaim the shells it had left earlier. As the waves came up and reclaimed a bit of the shell bed, I was their to examine what might have been uncovered in the bed, while the surf patrol scooped up what was heading back to the sea. Of course we attracted a couple of locals and several other beachgoers...most of those were there for shells.

After about 30 minutes, I had enough. The crowds around the shell beds were growing to large, and the beds were shrinking. Eventually, I was muscled out of my area (how rude!)and I headed back to our chairs to enjoy lunch, and examine our finds.

My DH stayed behind long enough to see a local pick up a nice cobalt piece (the first he's ever seen on this stretch of beach) and as the waves reached further up the beach, he found a nice piece of an old Coke bottle, and a well-frosted piece of what appears to be an old ketchup bottle.

In a short 30 minute span, we found more sea glass on the beach than we had found in the last 5 or 6 months! The Sea Glass Gods smiled upon us on this day, when they left behind those huge shell piles mixed with sea glass. Several of us scooped up pieces that were several decades old...and just as quickly as those shell beds were left, the sea came back to take them away.

I cannot remember the last time I found this many pieces during the summer...and on a bright sunny day! I'm off to take some pictures of a couple new creations, and I'll take a few pix of the weekend finds for my next entry.

Random August Thoughts...Disappearing Sea Glass, Etsy Gets Busier

We're halfway through the last month of the summer, and the last 2 trips to the beach have yielded zero pieces of sea glass, and only 5 pieces for the last 4 trips to the beach. I don't think I ever came away from the beach empty-handed for two straight trips! And only 5 pieces in 4 trips is also pretty shocking.

The NJ shore has been showing signs that the sea glass supply has been drying up in the last few years. Fewer and fewer pieces have been turning up, and most of what does appear on the beach, tends to be thinner shards of green, brown or clear...and that usually means that people are still discarding their beer and wine bottles in the ocean...and most of these pieces tend to be what my DH likes to refer to as "undercooked" or not quite sea glass. The pieces with sharp edges will never get a chance to become sea glass, as I toss them in the recycling cans along the beach. The more rounded edges, tend to be thicker pieces, and close to being finished, so I'll take them to an area of LBI that is not open to swimmers and give the ocean a chance to finish it's work.

Most of the "undercooked" pieces do get thrown out, because a large percentage of them are the thinner glass (almost always from recent discarding) Perhaps one day in the future, I'll regret not giving the thinner pieces a chance, but I would hate to think some unsuspecting swimmer had a day at the beach ruined by a severe laceration on the foot or leg.

So as summer winds down, and the vacationers head home for fall, hopefully there will be some sea glass turning up soon. At least the beaches will be void of cigar smoking, loud-mouthed bennies that leave their trash behind when they leave the beach for the day. I'm looking forward to Labor Day...can you tell?

Has the hot weathered helped or hurt your sales on Etsy the last 2 months? Or has the weather and the weak economy caused your sales to grind to a trickle? In part 2 of Random Thoughts... what I've noticed occurring during the dog days of summer. The images above are a few pieces that will be working their way into my Etsy shop this week!

'til next time... (probably Tues)
R

Turning Non-Jewelry Quality, Into Beautiful Creations...

A common question at the shows I do, or emails I receive, is "do I find all of my sea glass?" People local to the New Jersey shore are quite familiar with the angular pieces of sea glass that often turn up on the beach. So the question is often asked because they are well aware of what NJ sea glass looks like, especially the angular greens, browns, and whites of recent years.

While I would love to be able to hop a plane and fly over to the United Kingdom for a bit of sea glassing, it's just not in my budget (but it is something I would LOVE to have the opportunity to do) and heading out to California is also not something I am able to do at the drop of a hat...but for me, and my niche jewelry business, these places are my Michaels or AC Moore. And for every jewelry-quality piece of sea glass I find, I also probably find anywhere from 100 to several hundred pieces that aren't "jewelry-quality".

So how do I turn my non-jewelry quality pieces of sea glass into jewelry? Well, if you are expecting to hear that I tumble, acid wash, or alter the piece in any way shape of form, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I don't and I NEVER will. What my customers purchase from my, is exactly what the ocean delivered the day we found it. (minus the warm water, mild dish soap bath, of course)

Because I collected sea glass for decades before I ever considered using it to make jewelry, I have a fairly sizable collection. There are jars upon jars, dozens of gallon zip-lock bags, boxes, containers all over my craft room. And when I go through the collection, I'll always find a piece that was overlooked and it gets added to my "soon to be" jewelry container.

I do happen to trade lots and lots of NJ-type sea glass to collectors that know the value of their jewelry quality pieces. These collectors sometimes create mosaics with the pieces I send them. One collector simply puts them in glass jars and sells them. Purchasing the type of sea glass I need to make jewelry is not out of the question, but I only purchase from well-known collectors (and that usually means paying premium prices)

Every once in a while, the Atlantic Ocean will deposit a jewelry quality piece on the beach in New Jersey. And if it's a color I don't already own, it ends up in one of the shops or galleries I consign in...or perhaps it goes into my Etsy shop.

NJ doesn't turn out jewelry quality pieces very often any more. And sadly, sea glass has become "a vanishing gem" in my lifetime... so if you see a women on the beach walking at the water's edge, looking down. It'll probably be me (or a collector like me) I know there's a gem sitting in the ocean, just waiting to present itself, and I don't want to miss it- it just might be the last one.

Summertime and the end of finding sea glass...

Well Memorial Day has come and gone, and there's only a few more weeks before school is out for the summer. Soon it'll be time for the pool everyday, ice pops and baseball games, fireworks and occasional trips to the beach.

The beach will no longer be mine to share with the few locals that enjoy the solitude of an empty beach. This will certainly mean a temporary end of finding sea glass washed up on the beach by the tides. Instead the "bennies" will bring their long nets and scoop up the shell beds in the shallow water, hoping to find a couple "gems from the sea". They will leave the remains of the what their nets scoop up, along with their trash (I know those that love handmade are also equally eco-friendly as I), and eventually sometime after Labor Day, they'll venture back home. If I'm very lucky, I'll find a piece or two on our trips to the beach, and maybe my crew (the boys) will stumble upon a few pieces.

And just maybe, like a few years ago, a jewelry-quality piece will show itself in the summer surf....and hopefully, I'll be ready to pounce before one of our visitors to the beach scoop it up with their nets.

CreationsByRobin will be at the following venues over the next few months...

June 18th- JerseyMade in Mount Holly, NJ This will be an EtsyNJ get-together at the all-handmade brick & mortar store. If you're in the area, stop in...you never know what kind bargains or sales you might find! I'll be at the shop from 6pm to closing.

July17th- The Handmade Faire- Freedom Park, Medford, NJ- In this blogger's opinion, the BEST Show of the Summer! Last summer there were approx 90 vendors and thousands turned out. If you love handmade, then this is THE show to attend!

September 12th- The Beach Plum Festival, Island Beach State Park, NJ- Spend the day at the beach, and check out the handmade goods. Come out and extend your summer...I'll be in the same location as last year- right in front of the stand (and not to far from the beach plum jam)

See you at the shows....or on the beach! 'til next time....

R

Sea Glass Hunting... After the Boys of Summer Have Gone

So one would think it's not the ideal time to go sea glassing (aka-hunting for sea glass) Well there is nothing further from the truth...it is the optimum time to go...as long as 40 degree temperatures and cold, biting winds don't bother you much.

Okay, I have to admit...frigid conditions on the beach DO in fact bother me and I often don't accompany the hubby on his bordering on insane excursions, but after a bunch of convincing (he told me it would be great!) we went after work earlier this week and as he planned, the conditions were perfect. It wasn't too cold, and the winds weren't horrible...and since he knew that winds were blowing lightly from the west, the full moon had just passed and we arrived at low tide- everything was in place for a bountiful sea glass hunt!

Kevin has often told me of these perfect opportunities to find sea glass...and now I know exactly what he meant. I had never been to the beach to see this type of low tide....it was out at least several more feet than I had ever seen before...and the waves coming into the shore, weren't waves at all, they were more like gently rushing water.

With the shell/rock beds on the ocean floor exposed, this was incredible...now I know how he sometimes come home with several dozen pieces. While I picked from the higher beds, Kevin braved the water in his not-so-cool-looking water-proof boots and together we came home with what you see in the images above. (the boots might not be cool looking, but he found several pretty pieces lying in 3 or 4 inches of water, pieces that would have been out of reach otherwise...besides, I bought him the boots for Xmas last year...an investment in my business...lol)

He told me it would be great...and he was right.... however, he told me it would be great again yesterday and he was right again, but this girl ain't no fool.... temps in the low 40s and a colder, stronger wind...this girl stayed indoors and drank a hot cup of tea while the hunter went hunting : )


'til next time...
R