Sea Glass vs Craft Glass- A comparision between the "real thing and the imitation.

I've been asked many questions at craft shows and on the Internet about the sea glass. Questions such as, "What makes this a piece of authentic sea glass", "How can you tell that this is craft glass" are my favorite... "Where do you find your nicest pieces"?

I don't consider myself to be an expert in the field of sea glass. Collecting sea glass is a hobby that is shared by my hubby and I , along with our 2 sons. We love the beach and often spend hours on it's shore's, walking in search of what the previous tides may heave left. Our sea glass findings are displayed in the many decorative jars in our home and on the very lucky occasions that one of us find a jewelry quality piece, I'll make it into a handmade CreationsByRobin piece of wearable art.

In recent weeks, I've been asked to "authenticate" a piece of jewelry that someone was wearing and on another occasion, to look over a fellow vendor to authenticate if a piece was sea glass. (In both instances they were not authentic ... though the women who had spent a good deal of $$ on a piece of jewelry was told, we weren't sure)

My hubby has now reached a point that he'll question vendors when he feels that they are selling "craft glass" but selling it as authentic sea glass and he's come to realize that many vendors claim to know very little about sea glass and they know even less about the differences between the two.

Which brings me to the reason behind this blog entry...

How can you tell the difference between beach glass and craft glass?

I'll defer to one of the top sea glass experts to help me explain the subtle, yet often obvious differences. Richard LaMotte, in my opinion, is one of the foremost experts on sea glass. He took a great deal of time to learn from glass makers, chemical experts, etc and wrote a book about his experiences called, "Pure Sea Glass". "Pure Sea Glass" is my sea glass bible and accompanies me to each and every craft show.

I'll be borrowing often from his book in my explanation of the differences.... The biggest difference in sea glass and the one that craft glass makers can not duplicate is the weathering process that occurs to glass in the ocean. The process is called "hydration".

To put Mr. LaMotte's detailed explanation into the shortest terms, while in the water, hydrogen ions replace sodium ions in the glass. This creates a sodium hydroxide which begins to corrode the glass. The corrosion process is assisted by the higher pH levels found in the ocean. This procedure allows the glass surface to become altered and upon removal from the water, the dried surface can often display powdery crystal formations (from the corrosion process)

This process can often take decades to be obvious to the naked eye, but it is possible to feel the "pitting and scaring" of the glass with your fingertips. Mr. LaMotte goes into much greater detail and touches on how glass was made from specific periods of time and the differences to look for in identifying how old glass is.

Mr. LaMotte goes on to state the following about imitation glass (craft glass)..."Most of the imitation sea glass made today has a noticeable silky texture with very little surface pitting other than a uniform haze. Suppliers will often provide warnings regarding handling and use of this glass if it was etched with a strong (hydrofluoric) acid."

He goes on to say that the imitation sea glass is created for use in flower displays or decorative uses, but aren't well-suited for use in aquarium. The hard edges and fracture marks of imitation sea glass can be easily spotted, and the glass lacks the more obvious characteristics of pure, authentic sea glass.

I know that craft glass makers and some jewelers are trying to make headway into the market with less abrasive glass. These attempts are quite obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of sea glass. Because these imitation glass makers are attempting to make jewelry quality pieces, they are unable to use the acids to create an authentic look. Many of the the pieces that I've seen recently look beautiful, but clearly aren't authentic sea glass. They are big pieces, with harder edges and almost no sign of the pitting and scaring that authentic sea glass displays.

These makers sell the fact that the focal point in their jewelry is clean and bright. The piece doesn't show any differently in the light or sun, while an authentic piece of sea glass will brighten when put in direct light (especially sunlight) and often the colors will change dramatically!

Craft glass is what it is and if you want a piece of jewelry that has dazzling color all the time, then a piece of jewelry with imitation sea glass may be for you...just don't pay sea glass jewelry prices (and yes, I know my pieces of authentic sea glass creations are extremely inexpensive...but please don't pay sea glass prices for the imitation : ) )

Authentic sea glass is becoming harder to find. Glass productions nearly came to a halt 40-50 years ago and with the exception of beer and wine bottles, there really isn't much glass production these days... not the kind of production that makes it into the ocean anyway.

Richard LaMotte's book puts it best... "Discovering Nature's Vanishing Gems". If you want authentic sea glass, look for a respected member of the North American Sea Glass Association and for sea glass jewelry, look to the many handmade jewelers, like myself, that specialize in using authentic sea glass and capturing a period of time that will vanish one day very soon!

I hope this answers some questions I've been receiving. Feel free to ask if you have more, I truly love my hobby and just reading up on the weathering process taught me more about how the glass comes to be. Hopefully it will be around for several more years...

I'd hate to think I'll be doing a sea plastic blog in the future : )

'til next time....

R

PS- obvious pitting, scaring and bubbles (or small Cs) can be seen on and inside the sea glass pictured above. It's this process that imitation sea glass is unable to reproduce.

Featured On the EtsyNJ Team Page, WeirdNJ ad, Sea Glass Festival...

Another busy weekend ... a Saturday trip to Delaware for the North American Sea Glass Association's annual Sea Glass Festival.. and Sunday, a marathon session at my crafting table as I tried to finish a few projects and build up my Etsy shop inventory and try to get my craft show inventories back up. 2 weekends from today, I have 2 shows (at different locations) and following a one week break, I have shows on back-to-back weekends.

After my all day creating spree, I took a short break to check out a few blogs and went over to the EtsyNJ team's page and what a surprise I received when the page loaded! My Blissful Autumn bracelet staring me back at me. It seems my bracelet was nominated and selected for a weekly promotion.

It's a nice little promotion because our street team's advertisement in the October edition of WeirdNJ just hit the news stands. The ad links interested customers to both all of the team's Etsy shops and the EtsyNJ website ( http://etsynj.com/ ), where my bracelet is (proudly) displayed.

So back to the Sea Glass festival. If you're new to my blog, I'm into sea glass. I love getting out on the beach, walking block after block to see what the ocean left behind. I love using sea glass in some of my jewelry creations and I also have jars filled with sea glass displayed around my house.

So finally, the Sea Glass Festival was on the east coast and only an hour away. My hubby and I originally planned on attending both days, but because of my upcoming show schedule, I knew it'd be best to limit the festival to one day.

The festival was held in a small-ish facility that was part of the University of Delaware and the turnout was HUGE. If I were a vendor at the show, I would've been very excited by the volume of people pouring into the rooms and then a bit angry as the crowds kept coming. Each room was just a huge log-jam of people.

There were many times I was trying to see specific exhibits and was just stuck in the same spot for what felt like 10 minutes or more. During these times, I couldn't move more than 6 inches in any direction, much less get near the table I was trying to see. The few tables I did get to, I was trapped once I was there because the people also trying to get to the table were 3 and 4 people deep and there was just nowhere to go!

Had the fire department arrived, I wouldn't have been surprised to see them close down the whole building. I don't know what the building's occupancy was, but I would venture that it was exceeded by 3x or 4x the amount and that doesn't include the folks outside hoping to get back in!

For myself, the highlights of the show included meeting a few exhibitors that I have purchased sea glass from on the Internet and I was able to meet Richard LaMotte, author of a book on sea glass that I consider my "bible on the subject". He signed my book and evaluated 3 pieces of sea glass for me... telling me my black piece dates back to probably the mid to late 1800s and the latest exciting find from this summer, a beautiful, frosty teal piece that I found on Long Beach Island, looks to be at least 100 years old and is rare in it's coloring. When held in the light, the piece exhibits more blue tones than found in most teals. He called it a rare find and one he hasn't come across but once or twice. (this one has already been made into a necklace...wire-wrapped and will remain in my personal collection)

Overall, it was an okay day. I had a chance to see a few colors of sea glass I've never seen before...lots of beautiful reds, blues and lavenders and even several pieces of the the ever-elusive orange color. I like many other people who went to the festival were disappointed by the small rooms. Unlike many of the people, I stayed for a few hours trying to get to see all the exhibits.

Unfortunately, many people left after a few futile attempts to see the exhibits and many of those vendors would probably be disappointed to see that many potential customers take their money home with them.

I know, as a vendor, I would have been more than just a bit upset. Oh well, maybe next year.


'til next time...

R

Can The Economy Get Any Scarier? The Affect on Handmade Sales and Shows Sea Glass Festival

In my last entry, I blogged about the affect the economy has on craft shows and sales overall. I mentioned a surprisingly slow September after a very good spring and a busier than expected summer. Chalking the lull in sales to busy back-to-school Moms, I considered September to be one of those months where summer is over (and I do rely on Sea Glass jewelry sales for much of my sales) and yet, Autumn hasn't quite yet arrived... so my Sea Glass is yesterday's news, while my Fall colors are not quite the in thing just yet.

And then the stock market went haywire. Banks were failing causing people to start panicking, while they watched their investments plummet. So what would this all mean to our Handmade world?

Looking back on last week's show, I had an increase in a show where, even in a good economy, I think I would've been happy. So considering what's transpired outside my Handmade world with the economy, I should be thrilled with last weekend's outcome.

But the biggest positive I took from the show is the amount of people walking around the show saying that they were looking to buy handmade items,...unique items this year as holiday gifts and they are looking to get their holiday shopping underway now!

Of course, when I hear talk like that, I take it as wishful thinking. You know, wouldn't it be great if.... But this week, one of the customers that purchased something from me at the show signed up at Etsy and made a purchase. A second visitor to my craft table emailed asking about custom orders and both inquired about my future show schedule.

One thing seems for sure, the customers are buying and it seems they will be buying early in the season. So I'll be adding several new items over the weekend and hitting the promo forums in hopes of making a few October holiday sales.

Maybe when the economy doesn't appear to be sound, people look to simplify and the unique handmade creations we make appease their needs. Maybe.

This weekend, in Lewes, Delaware, the North American Sea Glass Association will be holding their annual sea glass festival. Normally held on the west coast, the NASGA decided on the right coast this year and luckily for me, it's about an hour away. Since I'm an enthusiast first and a sea glass jewelry creator second, I'm thrilled to have the chance to attend.

My hubby and I had hoped to attend the entire weekend's events, but with that darn economy and our decision to try to save to take our sons to Disney this fall, the whole sea glass-hunting family will take the ferry from Cape May and attend Saturday's planned events.

Hopefully, I'll run into some of the west coast collectors that I've been buying some of my beautiful sea glass gems from. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll have a few frosty beauties in their exhibits for sale this weekend.

I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the incredible gems that are found on beaches all over the world and hoping I can find a little piece of orange to add to my personal collection.

And of course I'll be looking to pick up a few pretties to make some new jewelry creations with!

Good luck to everyone with a show this weekend and please let me know how it turned out!

'til next time...

R

Does the Sluggish Economy Carry-Over to Crafts and Craft Shows?

Going into my first craft show (this past weekend in Eagleswood- Country Fair) I have to admit, I was a bit concerned about how the economy would affect the early Autumn shows. After having a decent summer on Etsy and an okay late summer craft show, I was prepared to see my little business "kick it" into high gear for the fall.

When September proved to be very slow, I chalked it up to back to school and thought perhaps that a late September rush would occur. A couple of late September sales bouyed my hopes. However October sales on Etsy have remained sluggish and I had fears going into last Saturday's shows.

Like many other crafters/artists, I have prepaid into many shows for the fall and I'll average 2 or 3 shows a month until Christmas. Clearly the economy has had much to do with the sluggish sales on Etsy (I know I'm no the only seller that has felt the crunch in the economy).

The show I did this past weekend isn't a craft show, but actually a Country Fair. Cheer gyms were performing, there were antique cars, pony rides & games for the children, pie-eating contests, etc.

So I went into the show expecting a poor showing and hoped that I could promote my Etsy shop and maybe make a few show sales and future online sales from the show. As it turned out, I handed out quite a few business cards, spoke with a bride-to-be about possibly creating sea glass jewelry for her wedding and ended up with a custom order for another customer, along with promoting a few of my future shows to people who live in those areas.

Overall, the show did better than last year's figures and wasn't a waste of time. Not that it would've been... my family came to the show with me and my sons were able to partake in all of the activities and really enjoyed themselves. This was the one show that they are able to come to without being bored after 30 minutes.

I had hoped to match last year's figures and I ended up exceeding those numbers (if only slightly) but I think I'll have a few repeat customers at a few of my future shows and hopefully this show will lead to a few online sales also.

The jury is still out on how the economy is going to affect my craft show schedule. This show will give me a reason to have a bit more of a positive outlook as I head into a few of my big shows later this month.

But I'm still hoping the economy regulates a little more, so people feel a bit easier about spending money in the very near future.

til next time...

R

PS- my first attempt at wire-wrapping...this beautiful frosty white piece of beach glass was found this summer on LBI, in NJ and will go into my Etsy shop shortly. Watch for a Sea Glass blog later this week!