Grading Sea Glass-- the long trip from beach to sale

Many of my friends think it's a lot of "fun" that beach comb and periodically sell some of the sea glass I find on the beach. A few suggest that they'd "like to do that, as well."

Can't say that I blame them... being able to make a few extra dollars from one of your hobbies is certainly a nice thing. But it's really not as simple as it looks. At least not if you take the "trade" seriously. In other words, there's more to it than walking around on the beach... and "BAM!" it's suddenly sold and you have money for a nice dinner.

A "choice" quality group of bright teal (or "lagoon blue-green") sea glass.

Did you know that every piece of sea glass is actually inspected FIVE TIMES before it goes out to a potential buyer?

First, I have a good look at everything when I pick it up on the beach. Anything with obvious chips or damage immediately gets tossed back.

Second, when I get home and sort the day's pickings by color-- and have better light-- more obviously defective pieces are rejected. They end up back in my backpack, and get tossed back in the ocean next time I am out.

Third, the "main" quality control step takes place when I select glass for a "lot" that will eventually end up on eBay or Etsy. Each color is sorted into "A" grade (about flawless), "B" grade (standard jewelry quality), "C" grade (minor faults, good for mosaics) and "D" grade (faulty rejects, going back to the beach).

Fourth, the glass gets a good looking over when I lay it out for photography. Sometimes I end up taking out a couple of flawed pieces and replacing them with something better.

Fifth, I look at each piece again when I have it out of the "lot envelope" to measure and describe it for sale. Although everything is pretty much "as it should be" by then, I do occasionally exchange a piece or two. This creates a bit of extra work because then I have to go back and take a new photo, reflecting the change.

The responses from aforementioned friends typically range from "wow, that sounds like a LOT of work!" to "why do you BOTHER?"

Well, it is a lot of work... and I "bother" because it is important to me to offer high consistency both in terms of color and quality. It's a system I used to build a couple of collectibles businesses... both of which have done well as a result of happy clients who always could feel confident that they would receive exactly what they were promised. When I decided to start selling sea glass, I saw no reason not to adapt the process to fit this particular "collectible."

In other news... I will probably be "out of the loop" for a while. My wife, Sarah, goes into hospital next week for surgery on her right shoulder. So I am going to "be her right arm" for a while... so I doubt there will be much time for sea glass, for a while.

So just in case, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, a Joyous Holiday Season and a Happy New Year!

A Winter Day on the Beach

In the wintertime, I take my beach combing opportunities when they come. As they say, "beggars can't be choosers," and during January the days with low tides during daylight hours are few and far between. Yesterday was one of those rare days, and it even turned out to be a fairly clear day-- although pretty "frosty."

Bright teal green

Now, to say that a day is "good" for beach combing during January had to be taken with a grain of salt. What it actually means is that I get to leave the house around 12:30, make a mad dash down the beach (about 3.5 miles/5.5km) while the tide is still quite high, in order to spend a couple of hours at my favorite beach combing spot... before it gets too dark and I have to make for home, again.

It's nice when these January outings happen to come on a clear day, as it affords me at least an extra 45 minutes of daylight. On a rainy day-- or even a day with heavy cloud cover-- it gets too dark to see what I am doing quite early. I know some people beach comb with a flashlight, but I have just never had much success with that.

It turned out to be a quite rewarding outing, even though I had my doubts, for a while.

The beach presents an ever-changing landscape, around here. Frequent storms and tides that fluctuate up to 12 feet between minimum and maximum means that rocks and sand constantly get moved around. On my walk out, I found myself having to traverse slippery soccer ball sized rocks, most of the way... and there was a thick layer of washed up seaweed in places-- the result of recent storms. Large rocks and seaweed are a combination that rarely bodes well, when your objective is to find sea glass.

Fortunately, as I got closer to one of the areas where I usually find some glass, some sandy patches started showing between the piles of large rocks. As the tide receded, a long thin line of sand and gravel stretched out before me... and I knew it was going to be a good day!

As most beach combers know, every day has it's own "character." Yesterday was a "lots of glass but few rarities" sort of day. Had I been interested in doing so, I could probably have picked up five pounds of clear and brown sea glass. Which, to most people's way of thinking (including mine!) is a LOT of sea glass. However-- aside from very unusual or perfect pieces-- I am really not very interested in the "common" colors, anymore.

Nugget of Amberina orange/red, as found yesterday

It was not until the very end of my day that a couple of lovely pieces found their way to me: A very BRIGHT and perfect nugget of red and orange "Amberina" glass-- a considerable rarity-- caught the dying rays of the sun and lit up like a little beacon. I tried to take a picture of it, but the effect was impossible to photograph. And just five minutes later, I found a beautiful nugget of vibrant blue-green glass (pictured at top)-- a shade of teal I very rarely come across.

And then it was time to head home, in the murk of a winter evening.

It felt good to be out there... and I felt pleased that this first outing of 2012 turned out as well as it did. I then paused to remind myself that as much as I enjoy finding sea glass, walking on the beach has always been "a meditation" for me. I'd still be "out there," even if there were no sea glass. However, the sea glass does offer a nice incentive!