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 Thoughts... Etsy and the Economy

In my previous entry, I mentioned that it appears that sea glass has disappeared from the beaches in New Jersey. The extreme winter took it's toll on the beaches, and the reconstruction of the beach has buried much of the glass. As current and future storms erode the beach, the glass in and near the beach is also getting buried.

Since their really hasn't been much to look for on the beach, I've found myself (sitting in my beach chair, working on my tan) thinking more about how the current economy has affected my online and craft fair sales. To say the economy is not good is an understatement. It has not been good for quite some time and this has affected my small handmade jewelry business.

Yet as August rolls around, there are many mixed signals coming from the state of our economy, and yet again, it is showing it's affect for me on Etsy. And this time, it appears to be a positive affect.

My DH has always been a number/stats type of person. He has been responsible listing items, and has noticed trends, that have allowed him to predict when I'm about to make a sale. He noticed these tell-tale signs starting in late July, and mentioned to me that things might be picking up soon.

I was quite skeptical because August has never really been a good month for my shop. Since sea glass is more of a beachy, summery type of accessory, I had already chalked up the summer season as another disappointment...just like the holiday season of 2009, the spring wedding season, Valentine's Day, etc. The economy was still shaky, the daily stock market reports resembled a roller-coaster ride on the boardwalk, so I assumed the "things might be picking up soon" comment to be a future sale, perhaps two (welcomed sales, nonetheless)

My hubby always looks to see how many members are hearting my shop & items. Not just any members, but members that don't have shops. It has always been his indicator that a sale could be forthcoming. And from late July thru the first week of August, I saw several "buyer-only" hearts in my shop... and despite what is usually a slow month, despite an economy that just can't seem to turn the corner, and in spite of the end of summer coming quickly...a sale, followed by another, and then a request, and a sale.

After speaking with a few other Etsy shop owners, they also mentioned a few "buyer-only" members frequenting their shops, "a few more than usual" is what one shop owner stated. Since the last days of July, 50% of my shop hearts are either secret admirers, or buy-only members. In the previous 5 or 6 months, I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the hearts received during that time, came from shop owners.

Is this a case of the economy finally rounding the corner, and improving? Or have people been sitting on their money for so long that they are getting restless, and want to do a little shopping...perhaps an early start on their holiday shopping?

I'm not sure, but I am sure happy about the the increased visits to my shop...and I'm thrilled that I'm prepared to keep my shop in the buyers memory by promoting, and listing new items.

This almost makes me want to brave the 90 degree heat, and do an outdoor show...almost.

'til next time...
R

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.