The Beauty of Natural Sea Glass
I have been a beachcomber since I was a small child. Walking along the edge of the sea has always filled me with a great deal of peace, and a sense of well-being. Picking up the objects washed up by the ocean merely added another level of interest and enjoyment. Sea glass-- those little pieces of once broken glass, now polished smooth by the sea-- are like "jewels of the ocean" for me and many other collectors around the world.
I would not go so far as to call myself a "professional beach comber," although I do make a few pennies from the things I pick up on the beach and sell to artists and jewelry makers. And so, this blog is both about sharing the beauty of what I find along the sea shore, as well as to share some of the items you can make your own.
My first group of seaglass auctions for 2008 are now listed on eBay!
North Beach Treasures auction listings
I like to group the glass together the way actual brick-and-mortar auctioneers do, so there are multiple "lots" all being offered with approximately the same end time.The first sale of 2008 has a total of 30 lots, including both some individual better pieces that might be of interest to collectors, as well as some nice "groupings" that are more offered for jewelry makers or crafts people.The highlight of the sale is the nice piece of bright turquoise, pictured above. Genuine turquoise is one of the rarest of all seaglass colors, and eludes many collectors, even if they have walked the beach for many years. Along with orange, turquoise tends to be the highest priced color in the collector market. A fairly large flawless piece of turquoise seaglass sold for $176.00 on eBay, in early 2007. On the rare occasions when high quality shards of this color are offered, the prices tend to reach $50+ very quickly.
First post of 2008. Happy New Year!
If you live in the northern hemisphere, collecting sea glass in the winter can be somewhat of a challenge. Not only are you dealing with a high likelihood of inclement weather, but the days are short and typically the highest tides are during daylight hours, and the low tides occur in the middle of the night.
I went to the beach exactly twice in December, and found very little of interest. Some of the better and more interesting items will end up on eBay, later this month.
Happily, there are some better days (tide-wise) coming up towards the middle of January, and I just hope the weather isn't completely horrible. Spending three hours on the beach with rain being driven into my face at 25mph, while the temperature is about 40 (4C) is really not my idea of a fun time.
It has been a year, of sorts. Frankly, had anyone (in the past) told me that I would end up actually selling some of my seaglass to other collectors and to jewelry makers around the world, I would have looked at them like they were nuts. It surprises me a little, in a way, because I have been seeing jewelry made with seaglass for many years. I suppose I always figured that the jewelers got their glass from personal trips to the beach.
Now that I think about it, that doesn't necessarily make sense-- some of them lived in locales 100s or even 1000s of miles from the nearest coastline. And, as one person at a street fair pointed out to me, earlier this year: "Making jewelry and going to fairs takes up all the time I have. I can't really afford to give up a bunch of days to go find my own glass."
The thing I had "overlooked" is that a lot of artists live in financially precarious positions, and so the $100 they could save by doing their own beachcombing doesn't make up for losing three days of work. Apart from which being able to buy a batch of glass that has already been sorted by color, and selected for "jewelry quality" is a lot more reliable than depending on whatever turns up, on any given day at the beach.
I have been encouraged by the favorable response I have received from people, as a result of my seaglass auctions on eBay. Seems that a few folks out there believe I am "doing it right."
I never really envisioned my selling some of my "excess" seaglass as being more than something I "dabble" in. Certainly, I never contemplated it as "a business," and I still don't. It's a hobby, first and foremost.
That said, I have had a few of my seaglass-for-jewelry customers suggest to me that I put up an eBay "store," rather than just rely on periodic auctions. I understand their point. As I have been going, so far, I just bulked up whatever I had left to sell every 3-4 weeks and put it out for auction. In a way, an "all or nothing" approach.
An online store makes sense (from a buyer's perspective), because people can go there and buy supplies when they need it, not based on when I happen to have time for auctions.
Of course, it costs money to have a store on eBay, but since I'm not really trying to have a business, per se... the cost seems negligible, vs. the benefits to people out there.
So, with no further ado, I am pleased to announce the "opening" of my eBay store:
North Beach Treasures
If you're a sea glass collector, you'll find some better individual shards-- unusual and rare. If you're a jewelry maker or doing crafts projects with sea glass, you'll find bulk lots and "selections," often listed by quality grade and color.
I am feeling a bit bummed that the 2007 NASGA Sea Glass Festival is October 7-8, which overlaps with a retreat I am co-hosting in Estes Park, CO.
One of the people who buys glass from me on eBay asked if I was going, and I had to admit that I am not. The Colorado thing was a prior agreement.
It will probably be a couple of years before I can go to a seaglass festival, as rumor has it the next one they schedule will be on the east coast. I don't really know enough people back east to be sure I have a free place to stay.
Although I do try to make it to the beach pretty much year-round, summers are more fun. The tides are more favorable (most of the fall and winter, low tide occurs in the middle of the night), and the longer days make for more time to walk further and pick things up.
It seems to be a general rule that the further you are willing to walk, the better the pickings. When I say walk, I am referring to how far you walk from the nearest land access to the beach. Once you get much beyond three miles (or an hour+), the pickings start to get better, especially if part of the hike is difficult, over a beach that is mostly large round rocks, making footing rather treacherous.
I have been finding a few rarities, recently. I have a much better sense of why they are "rarities," now. Sea glass marbles seem to be getting scarcer every year, too... I guess it may be a product of modern times-- kids don't play with maerbles anymore.
So far, it would seem, I have done fairly well with my sales on eBay. People seem fairly pleased with the lots I have offered, and and the majority of my lots have sold.
I experienced some "trickiness" around going to the retreat in California-- it's hard to run an Internet business when you're not actually somewhere where you can connect to the Internet.
I had expected summer to be a pretty good season around here, but I am discovering that this is such a tourist town that most of the beaches are actually picked clean, around this time of the year. Seems that leaves me either with "friendly" tides and little glass, or "unfriendly" tides, and better glass. Not sure what to do about that. Of course, I am not really running a "business," per se, so maybe I just shouldn't worry.
But speaking of business, I have been surprised at the number of people who have actually been surprised that I answer emails, and answer questions on eBay. I find that a but mystifying. Why would a seller not take the time to answer and inquiry? Not that I am necessarily all that surprised, since I heard much the same kind of feedback in the stamp business.
I really haven't found a great number of rarities around here. Naturally, there's lots and lots of common glass in common colors, but not very much in unusual colors. Heh! Maybe that's what makes them "unusual!"
