March 2013 Sea Glass Auctions now open!

The March 2013 sea glass auctions are now open for bidding on eBay!

This month there is a particularly nice selection up for grabs. Why? Not only have the last couple of months been fairly kind to me on the beach, I managed to catch up with one of my old "someday I really need to get around to this" projects. I had a big bin of sea glass that had been sitting-- pretty much untouched-- since we moved, late in 2010. Because the house was a mess of packing boxes at that time, the "results" from my beach combing were just put in a bin "to deal with later." Well, this month "later" finally arrived-- only took me 2 1/2 years to get there!

This week, 114 auctions went "live" on eBay. Of course, some are already gone, thanks to the buy-it-now option, but there are still well over 100 lots left.

The items for sale run the range from better individual rarities in colors like red, orange, yellow, pink and teal to really nice high quality "lots" made with jewelers and artists in mind.

There are always a lot of requests for aquamarine and blue sea glass, so I put a lot of effort into putting a large selection of these popular colors together.

UNfortunately, next month's offerings will be far more modest, as we will be traveling for part of the month, and recent beach combing trips simply haven't yielded a lot of really desirable material. Alas, that's how it goes with beach combing: You never know what you're going to get.

The link below takes you directly to the auction listings:

March Sea Glass Auctions: Bid until Sunday 3/24 at 7:30pm Pacific/10:30pm Eastern

A small selection of items from the March 2013 auctions

Storms aren't always a good thing...

I went beach combing, yesterday.

We've been having some pretty stormy weather during the past few days, so I was feeling very hopeful that it was going to be a good day on the beach. Storms bring big waves, and big waves tend to "turn over" the sand, pebbles and rocks, bringing new material to the surface.

Sadly, it was not such a good day-- which just just illustrates what I wrote a few weeks ago "You never know what you're going to get," when it comes to beach combing.

Evidently, quite a few other people had the same idea as I, about the winds potentially making for a good day. I normally walk the 3.5 miles to my favorite spot in quiet contemplation-- it's my meditation. On this day, I was shaken out of my reverie several times as groups of "very determined looking" people with bags and buckets almost seemed to "fly" by me.

It made me feel some... unrest.

Truth be known, I really don't mind sharing the beach with other enthusiasts. What I mind is a certain kind of "energy" that goes with people who clearly have an "intensely important mission" on the beach... and seem to turn the gentle pastime of  beach combing into something that resembles a "competitive sport." To me, that defeats the entire purpose... and somehow takes away from the quiet beauty I enjoy so much. Sure, I can honor that we all have different objectives... but I just find the demeanor and mindset a little "disturbing."

In spite of the above, I still completed my usual walk and even though my pockets were pretty empty of treasures, I did "pick up" some good for topics I want to write about, in the coming weeks.

February 2013 Sea Glass Auctions

The February 2013 Sea Glass Auction is now running and accessible to be viewed on eBay.

Once a month, I offer some of my recent beach combings for sale at auction. Because I often-- especially during the spring and summer-- am on the beach up to 15+ days a month, I do tend to end up with more nice quality sea glass than I need for my own collection and projects. It seems only reasonable to me to help it find "new homes" with fellow sea glass enthusiasts, jewelers, artists and crafts people. During some periods of the year, these offerings are fairly modest; at others they are fairly impressive.

This month's offerings consist of 90 new auction listings with sea glass and beach pottery which went "live" on Sunday evening, February 17th. There's a broad mixture of "jewelry lots" as well as better individual pieces and rarities for collectors. There's a particularly nice selection of the popular blue shades, this month.

Click on the link below to see the current selection!

February Auctions: Bid until Sunday, February 24th at 7:00pm Pacific/10:00 Eastern

A sampling of lots that are part of the February 2013 auctions

All auctions were listed more or less "together" so as to end at approximately the same time. I do this in order for the "save on shipping when buying multiple items" option to actually makes sense. I find few things more annoying than eBay sellers who offer "discounted shipping," but never have more than 7 (often unrelated!) items for sale.

The "ending times" happen on Sunday, February 24th at 7:00pm Pacific/10:00pm Eastern time. Closing times for lots are spaced roughly one minute apart, to accommodate those who enjoy "live bidding" on sequential lots.

There is a "buy it now" option with all lots, but please keep in mind that this option does go away the moment someone places a bid.

As stated above, "combined shipping" is available. In spite of eBay's new rules for "trackable shipment," I still only charge $2.95 (in the US) for the first lot and $0.75 for each additional lot. That covers (barely!) the $2.07 for a first class parcel + $0.90 for delivery confirmation, which is now more or less a REQUIREMENT when you sell on eBay.

Odd bits: Doorknobs, drawer pulls, knops and more

Even after 40+ years of beach combing and looking for sea glass, I continue to approach-- and appreciate-- each trip to the beach with child-like enthusiasm.

I still feel happy every time I find even something relatively common... in an unusual shape, or perfect condition, or deeper-than-usual color.

This used to be a drawer pull or cabinet knob

Of course, "odd bits" offer a particular thrill-- in part because of the rarity factor, in part because of the fun of going "What IS that???" and then figuring it out.

I live in a small seaside city of some 10,000 people. What makes beach combing here interesting is that this was a thriving community in the mid- to late 1800s, and 100's of fine old homes were built here, on the expectation that this would become "The San Francisco of the North."

Alas, that never happened-- for a couple of reasons; one being an adequate natural water supply to support the growing population, the other being a decision by the railroad companies not to extend the lines here... and without rail transport to hand shipping cargo, the dreams of a major seaport were dashed.

How does this relate to beach combing?

Many of the old houses fell into disrepair. Some became so derelict they were torn down for safety reasons (in the 1930's to 1950's)... and the debris was bulldozed into the ocean; basically "thrown over the edge" of seaside escarpments to be taken away by the tides. Contained in that debris were the fixtures used in bygone eras in nice houses: glass and porcelain doorknobs, drawer pulls, chandeliers and more. And, in time, they became a very special form of sea glass.

A conical drawer pull-- the "inside" is hollow, for the attachment

Over the years, I have found a wide range of unusual artifacts around here. I have beach combed in many different places around the US and the world... and whereas I may have found tens of thousands of pieces of glass there, this is the first time I have lived in a place where it was possibly to find the sea polished remains of old building debris.

I find at least a couple of glass doorknobs, every year. They are not as interesting, visually, as they tend to have worn down to where they are just very large, very thick circular pieces of sea glass, sometimes with one side (the side that would have face inwards, towards the door) flat or slightly concave. The cabinet knobs and drawer pulls are more interesting-- a lot more variety of shape and size. Old crystals from chandeliers are relatively rare-- they were usually made of lead crystal, which is relatively soft... and tends to wear away much faster in the ocean. I can usually recognize them by the "teardrop" shape and the glass being uncommonly "white" in appearance.

"Show and Tell" for Adults

Keeping a beach combing and sea glass blog is an interesting proposition. After all... what do you write about, aside from going to the beach, and then sharing pictures of the things you find?

As I sat here contemplating "what to write about," I realized how much beach combing-- and particularly the process of sharing our experiences as sea glass enthusiasts-- basically amounts to "show and tell for adults." Which is not to disregard the fact that there are also kids and teens who beach comb.

But think about it: We go treasure hunting, find stuff, take pictures of it... and then post it to our blogs, Internet groups and more.

Of course, I feel far more enthusiastic about this type of show and tell than I ever did about those projects back in grade school. I guess my dislike of those had to do largely with the fact that what I got to "show" was rarely anything of my choice, but instead some fixed assignment I had little to no interest in.

I like the fact that so much sea glass has a "story." Take, for example, this large piece of green sea glass in the picture. It's so much more than just "green sea glass." This particular blue-green shade is quite uncommon-- it accounts for less than 1-in-100 pieces of "green" I find. Typically, it comes from very old wine bottles, many from the early 1900's. I sometimes call this color "deep grayish teal green." Finding pieces in perfect condition is difficult-- the manufacturing methods were often crude and the glass poorly annealed (the slow cooling process for glass), as a result of which most large pieces tend to "shear" if they bang into something like a rock... OR there are inclusions and bubbles in the glass, leading to an uneven surface.

So, to the casual observer, that may look like "just another piece of glass." However, to someone who has collected for a lifetime? This 1 1/2" long piece with perfect frosting IS a minor rarity.

And so... worthy of "show and tell."

Life Is Like a Box Of Chocolates

Sometimes beach combing reminds me of that well known line from the movie "Forrest Gump:"

Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get.

I have walked along the same stretches of beach 100s of times, and yet I never know what I'm going to get. The beach can look exactly the same as last time, the weather can be the same, the time of the year can be the same... and yet? On one day I return home with bulging pockets, on the the other I'm lucky to find a tiny handful of sea glass.

And then I wait three days, and it's different, yet again.

I went out, yesterday, hoping to find a few more things before the end of the month. It seemed like it was going to be a really good day... and yet it turned out to be one of those "empty pockets" days.

Perhaps not entirely empty, but nothing unusual to write home about. Perhaps the most unusual thing I cam back with was the clear and green "fusion" in the picture. Clearly, this was a piece of "bonfire glass," yet is was as smooth and perfect as any piece of single color seaglass-- no little dark inclusions, no popped bubbles, no striations from the fire. And so, that became my "treasure of the day."

In the end, though, I was grateful that I got to be out and about.

January 2013 Sea Glass Auctions

The January 2013 Sea Glass Auction is now running and accessible to all on eBay.

Once a month, I like to offer some of my beach combings for sale at auction. Because I often-- especially during the spring and summer-- am on the beach up to 15+ days a month, I do tend to end up with more nice quality sea glass than I need for my own collection and projects. It seems only reasonable to me to help it find "new homes" with fellow sea glass enthusiasts, jewelers, artists and crafts people. During some periods of the year, these offerings are fairly modest; at others they are fairly impressive. Click on the link below to see the current selection!

January Auctions: Bid until Sunday January 27th, 7:00pm Pacific/10:00pm Eastern

115 new auction listings with sea glass and beach pottery went "live" on Sunday evening, January 20th. There's a broad mixture of "jewelry lots" as well as better individual pieces and rarities for collectors. This selection is actually the largest I have had on eBay since 2009, and the quality is very nice! In addition, there are another 50+ new lots coming to the store later this week, for immediate purchase.

A sampling of the sea glass available in the January auctions. Click on the image to see a larger version!

All auctions were listed more or less "together" so as to end at approximately the same time. I do this in order for the "save on shipping when buying multiple items" option actually makes sense. I find few things more annoying than eBay sellers who offer "discounted shipping," but never have more than 7 (often unrelated!) items for sale.

The "end times" start on Sunday, January 27th at 7:00pm Pacific/10:00pm Eastern time. Closing times for lots are spaced roughly one minute apart, to accommodate those who enjoy "live bidding" on sequential lots.

There is a "buy it now" option with all lots, but please keep in mind that this option does go away the moment someone places a bid.

As stated above, "combined shipping" is available. In spite of eBay's new rules for "trackable shipment," I still only charge $2.95 (in the US) for the first lot and $0.75 for each additional lot. That covers (barely!) the $2.07 for a first class parcel + $0.90 for delivery confirmation, which is now more or less a REQUIREMENT when you sell on eBay.

If you'd like to keep up with my monthly sea glass auctions, I recommend that you use one of the "subscribe" options, in the right hand column.

A Day at the Beach: January 16th

When nice weather presents itself in January, you just have to seize the opportunity! Most January days around here mean rain and cold (and occasional snow) so we prize dry sunny days. Of course, there's no telling whether such days are going to fall on a day where the tide is decent... but sometimes you get lucky.

We are slowly moving towards a time of the year when there are a few short periods with lower tides during daylight hours. This is also the time of the year when we have "King tides," which are extremely high... and when such tides are accompanied by strong onshore winds, we often see some pretty severe coastal erosion... and seaside parking lots getting swamped by waves.

The ocean is very powerful, and in this part of the world, we do get a lot of loose floating logs. And when I say "logs," that can often mean a tree trunk some three feet in diameter and 50 feet long. Even though these can weigh in at tens of thousands of pounds, it's amazing how even something as relatively minor as 5-foot waves can toss them around and deposit them 50 foot inland, in the middle of a parking lot... like they were no more than match sticks. I have seen our parking lot after a good storm and wondered at how 200lb boulders had gotten moved as far as they had.

The beach can be fairly treacherous, at this time of the year. When you have to traverse fallen trees and boulders from the size of soccer balls to the size of your average kitchen stove (see photo, above), going is slow... most people are lucky to make about one mile in an hour; and when you have several miles to go, it quickly becomes a tedious and potentially ankle-twisting adventure. When the rocks are wet-- or covered with seaweed-- you have to be especially cautious. As many times as I have been across such rocky ground, I consider myself fortunate to have "escaped" with no more than a few wet feet.

I often have to simply resign myself to going slowly... but that's OK, as it gives me plenty of time to enjoy my surroundings and say hello to the other creatures with whom I share space, such as this otter who quickly scurried across my path, jumped into the water, and then regarded me cautiously as it swam by. It dove a couple of times, then disappeared.

I beach comb in a place where there is pretty much "nothing to be found" for at least a couple of miles. And I never know what I am going to find. I could spend a couple of hours "getting there," only to discover a beach covered in six-inch boulders... or covered with a 6-inch layer of seaweed, making the glass impossible to spot. There's no way to "check in advance," so I just have to make a commitment and go... and whatever will be, will be.

It was about 45 minutes before I found even the first sign of sea glass. I don't normally pick up brown sea glass, but this was an impressively large and smooth piece, so I decided to keep it.

Perhaps a bit like baseball players, I'm a bit superstitious. I have this nagging belief that it's bad luck not to pick up the first piece of glass I see...

As the years have gone by, I have gotten more and more particular about what I pick up, and what I leave behind.

Other than particularly interesting-- or outstanding size/quality-- pieces, I almost never pick up clear or brown glass anymore. That said, I usually do come home with a fair amount of clear, simply because a lot of interesting "objects" were made with clear glass-- bottles and bottle stoppers, handles and feet from candy dishes, door knobs and drawer pulls-- and many of them are worthy of collecting.

However, I am most particular about the quality of the glass-- anything with fresh chips, breaks or other damage goes back into the ocean... and hopefully I will find it again, many years from now, when it has fully "cooked." I see no point in saving "broken" glass.

It always disappoints me when I see out-of-town visitors around here, who insist on picking up absolutely everything they can get their hands on. Because our surf can be rough-- and there are lots of larger rocks-- the vast majority of sea glass on our beaches has some form of damage. I probably pick up no more than 1-in-8 of the pieces of glass I see... the rest I leave behind for some day when they will be "ready." To me that's not only good "beach combing etiquette," it's common sense.

This turned out to be one of my best winter beach combing days in a very long time. I found three quite nice pieces of red glass, which was definitely cause for celebration. I also found a few other pieces in "better" colors: Yellow, pink, turquoise and some rarer shades of green.

Part way through the afternoon, it occurred to me that the nice glass on the beach was probably more a result of the recent very high tides, than the current lows... some of the "old" pebbles had finally been beaten around by the waves, revealing things that probably had been "hiding" since last January's "king tides."

One of my favorite things about this time of the year is that there are not many people on the beach-- and this day was no exception; I saw maybe five other people, the entire afternoon.

And when there are few people, there tends to be more wildlife. Much of the afternoon, I was watched over by a couple of eagles, looking at the world from the trees on the high bluffs behind me. Although the eagles around here are pretty used to humans, many of them stay hidden when the beach is crowded.

Besides, beach combing is really a "meditation" for me, so I prefer solitude.

Of course, not everything I pick up is sea glass. Along the way, there are always interesting rocks, sea shells and other objects of interest.

One of my very best finds of the day was actually not even sea glass but the large (at least for this part of the world) golden agate I found, late in the day-- shown in the picture below. I would not have spotted it, had it not been a sunny day and late in the day when the sun is very low... but it lit up like a bright orange-yellow golf ball in the late afternoon sun. I am not sure what to "do" with the agates I find, but they are very pretty, and remind me of the pieces of amber we'd sometimes find on the beaches in Denmark, when I was a kid. And much like some of those pieces of amber, this golf ball sized agate had a dark "moss like" inclusion.

By the end of the day, I had found quite "a lot" of sea glass, but it was noteworthy-- once again-- how the "rare colors" are getting ever rarer with each year that passes. Many of them start as fairly small pieces of glass, so it only makes sense that the small pieces will be the first to be completely worn away by waves and sand.

It will be a couple of weeks before I can go back to the beach, as we enter another period of only high tides during the day... the end of January and early February bring the next set of lower tides during daylight hours. In the meantime, there is lots of sorting to be done.

In a sense, the timing of the tides works out well for this month, as the rest of this week will mostly be spent with photography and prep work for the upcoming sea glass auction.

As much as I enjoy walking on the beach and finding glass and pottery... I also find it rewarding to "play with my glass" after I get home-- to see just exactly what my frozen fingers picked up. On the more unusual items, I enjoy the detective work of trying to guess what the piece originally might have been part of.

I also enjoy sending glass to other sea glass enthusiasts and artists all around the world. I like the idea that things I find on the beach become part of "objects of beauty" other people get to enjoy. In the course of the last couple of decades, I have sent sea glass as far away as Australia and New Zealand, Japan and Argentina, as well as numerous countries around Europe. I love how the Internet has helped bring the global sea glass enthusiast community together.

First Sea Glass Auction of 2013 set for January 20th

As some of you may know, I periodically run sea glass auctions on eBay.

What I like to do is assemble enough sea glass to make many individual "lots" and then put everything up for auction with the same start and finish date. I treat it a bit like a general public auction, where you have a list of things up for sale and everything is available for bids on the same day.

I started doing eBay auctions this way more than 15 years ago, as a trader in rare stamps for collectors. I mostly did so as a "reaction" to sellers who promised me "reduced shipping when you buy multiple lots"... but then would only have a handful of (generally UN-related) items up for sale at any one time.

Don't get me wrong, I do understand the logic behind "always having something for sale," but that's more of a benefit to the seller than to buyers. In general-- and I know this is true of me, as a buyer-- buyers benefit more from having lots to choose from at the same time... that way you can get "everything you need" taken care of in one sitting, rather than getting one or two items each from 17 different sellers.

Of course, everyone has their own philosophy.

Anyway, I have decided to start my first sea glass auction of 2013 on Sunday, January 20th, with an end date of Sunday, January 27th.

I am currently in the process of sorting, grading and assembling the glass to go up for auction... I'm expecting to end up with 100-120 lots, including better and rare individual pieces as well as many "lots" for jewelry and crafts projects. All will be well photographed and accurately graded and described. Expect some rare colors, as well as lots you seldom see "in quantity."

A further announcement will be posted next weekend, with more specific details about the glass up for auction.

New Sea Glass in the Etsy Shop

Since beach combing opportunities are few and far between this time of the year, I have instead been focusing my attention on "sorting and grading" some the finds from last fall's beach trips.

"Sorting and grading" is one of the important things I do, as a seller of sea glass. I want potential buyers to feel confident that they know exactly what they can expect to get-- ideally, if you're going to buy sea glass, you should be able to acquire individual pieces and lots in such a way that you end up with "no waste."

I treat selling sea glass much as I would treat selling gemstones. I can't imagine very many serious jewelers would buy "a random handful of unsorted stones" for their jewelry operation... and I really don't see why someone working with sea glass should expect anything less from a supplier than someone working with-- say-- semi-precious stones.

Anyway, after my recent sorting efforts, I was able to add 40 new lots with sea glass (and a few lots with glazed beach pottery) to the Etsy sea glass shop. These include some very nice groups in the popular blue and aquamarine shades. I hope you'll go have a look!

North Beach Treasures Sea Glass Shop

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First Beach Day of 2013!

Yesterday marked my first day to get out on the beach in the new year. Winter beach combing tends to be tricky as the days are short, the weather often horrible and the "good" low tides occur after dark.

Thursday marked the first day within a very short "window of opportunity" where I could get "out there" and back during daylight hours. Even so, it tends to be a mad dash (aka an almost 4-mile "racewalk") to get where I need to go, followed by brief beach combing, followed by another racewalk in the fading light, back to where I started.

Thankfully, it was a clear sunny day, which not only made the outing more pleasant... but added a good 20-30 minutes to the amount of available daylight. It was also on the cold side-- that white stuff in the photo is a thin layer of ice/snow from the previous day.

The beach where I generally beach comb is backed by a tall escarpment on the "land" side. Unlike many waterfront area, these sometimes 400-foot tall banks are not cliffs (aka "rock") but compacted clay and sand, deposited there by glaciers during the last ice age. It's odd to think that the beach where I now walk once upon a time had an estimated 3000 feet of ice on top of it.

These slopes are not exactly the most stable landscape on the planet, especially during the time of the year where it often rains, freezes and thaws... over and over. Slides are frequent, and can sometimes completely block the way for weeks, until a good storm spreads the debris. Since this is not a "maintained" beach, nature simply has to take its course.

Indeed, I encountered a fairly new slide; this one fairly "minor" (comparatively speaking) and partly washed away by winter storms. "Minor" is perhaps a relative term-- meaning only about 5,000 tons of clay and sand came down, as opposed to 100,000 tons for a major collapse. I've experienced one of these "erosion events" up close and personal (from a few hundred feet away) and it sounds like a freight train coming at you as the slope gives way and a blend of clay, sand and rocks throws around 75-foot trees like match sticks. The beach truly is "alive."

These slides are not a good thing for the sea glass hunter. Not so much because they are dangerous, but because the layer containing recent garbage (and sea glass) ends up being covered by a 3-foot thick layer of "virgin" sand from thousands of years ago... and it will take years of storms and waves before the sand is moved and mixed enough for the sea glass to surface, once again.

Resigned to finding little, I instead took time to enjoy my surroundings-- a superb view of Mt. Baker on a clear day, wearing a thick coat of fresh snow.

Although it seldom snows significantly here at sea level, we are surrounded by snow covered mountains, many of them with white caps all year long. It makes for spectacular surroundings-- and I often have to remind myself to look UP from the beach and take in the beauty that surrounds me. It's easy to get completely wrapped up in the business of looking for little pieces of glass!

Lots of ducks spend the winter here or pass through on their migratory path.

I don't know the names of them all, but sometimes the shallows are literally covered with thousands and thousands of birds. Although most are distinctly "northern" birds, I have also seen a few flocks of brown pelicans fly by.

Fortunately, not all the beach was covered with new sand, so my fears of returning empty-handed were unfounded. I managed to get in just under two hours in one of my favorite spots... and even though the pickings were somewhat slim, I did manage to come away with a few interesting and colorful treasures.

Unfortunately "overpicking" continues to be an issue around these parts-- however, there is not much one can do about that, given the increasing awareness and popularity of sea glass. I just wish people would develop some better "beach combing etiquette" and at least throw back the obviously damaged pieces so they can finish "cooking," and be enjoyed by future generations of beach combers.

All in all, though, I was grateful to be back on the beach-- for the first time since late October. I came home with a few nice pieces (the best pictured at left) and had a lovely walk on a gorgeous winter day. I am looking forward to the next opportunity to get out on a day with "decent" tides, which is going to come around later this month.

Till then, I hope your beach combing endeavors go well, wherever you may be. Happy New Year!

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!

The Mixed Blessings of Fall

The days are growing markedly shorter, as fall rolls ever closer. The shadows at mid-day are growing longer, and the light is growing more golden. Even the trees and plants are getting that slightly yellowed "late-in-the-year" look to them.

The Autumnal Equinox (when day and night are exactly the same length, and "Fall" officially begins) happens in a couple of days, on September 22nd.

In the microcosm that is beach combing around here, the arrival of fall is a mixed blessing.

On one hand, it means that the tides are slowly "turning," towards a point where the "good" low tides that make for the best beach combing opportunities... well, they will happen at "anti-social" hours, or in the middle of the night. More and more, there will be just a few-- very short-- worthwhile days to get out.

On the other hand, the stillness of summer is slowly giving way to breezier days. During the summers, the bays and straits along our beaches are often as calm as a mill pond. High winds are unusual, if not outright rare. The tides come in; the tides go out... barely stirring the "landscape" of the beach.

For a sea glass hunter, that means we've (basically) been picking through the same 4" top layer of sand and pebbles for months. And after a while-- in part thanks to the heavy influx of tourists during the summer-- there is almost nothing to be found; very little glass that's worthy of being brought home.

As fall arrives, the winds start to pick up again as the weather changes, and soon there will be autumn storms. This is good news! It means that the beach will get "churned up" again, and glass that has been previously hidden, a couple of feet down, will be brought to the surface.

Of course, nothing can overcome the "natural breakdown" that occurs all the time. Sea Glass is, for sure, a "Diminishing Resource," since we no longer throw things away randomly... and most of our containers are now made of plastic. With each year that passes, there is less and less glass to be found.

So far, 2012 has been a very "lean" year... but I remain hopeful that there will still be good things to be found, as fall rolls in!

North Beach Treasures: Building A Sea Glass Web Site

For some months, I have been working on a major redesign of the North Beach Treasures web site.

I suppose everybody has their own impression of what a web site should be "about." For some, it's purely a selling tool, or a way to market their product or art. For others, it's about sharing a passion or interest. For yet another group, a web site is about offering something "of educational value."

Emerald Green sea glass heart

I started North Beach Treasures in 2007, without much of a real "purpose," aside from wanting to put a separate identity on my sea glass collecting hobby. I have a long "history" on the Internet, and what I am "known" for has nothing to do with sea glass... and I didn't want to confuse people who "know" me with inconsistent results when they are searching for information.

Back in March of this year, I decided I needed to "do something" with this web site I'd started. Up to that point, it had been little more than a "place holder" with some pretty pictures and links to the places where I have sea glass for sale. In taking this step, I also had to sit down and decide what I really wanted the web site to be ABOUT.

I love sea glass, and I love beach combing. These have been part of my life since I was six years old. I also love macro photography-- I started photographing "nature in close-up" when my dad gave me my first "real" camera for my 16th birthday. The stunning beauty, bright colors and endless variety of sea glass allows me to combine these two things I care deeply about.

This led me to realize that the primary thing I wanted the North Beach Treasures web site to be "about" is to share how I see sea glass, through photography. On some level, I also wanted to share my own personal beach combing "experience." Everything else felt somewhat secondary. Sure, I wanted the site to be "useful" and "educational." And certainly, I wanted to have a place where people could find sea glass I have for sale.

I found myself thinking a little more about the sea glass "experience," and what that meant. Much has been written by experts about the where's, how's, why's and rarities of sea glass-- in a general sense. I wanted the site to include an "in MY experience" approach, above and beyond the "it is generally accepted" approach many sea glass web sites use.

Amberina art glass as sea glass

Investigating what "my experience" meant actually caused the web site to be delayed several months. Most of the delay was due to my interest in assessing the rarity of different colors of sea glass, and "quantify" that rarity. This has already been done, once, by sea glass expert Richard LaMotte, in his excellent book "Pure Sea Glass" (If you don't own a copy, you should buy it... NOW!). Running the numbers on 40+ years of beach combing was a pretty laborious task-- but I was helped a lot by my photographic records and fondness for journaling.

My own conclusions about the relative rarity of sea glass resulted in fairly similar results to those reached by Richard LaMotte back when his book was published, in 2004, although there were some minor differences. My "color divisions" were also slightly different, and I included "regional variations" as part of my assessment of rarity. All in all it was an interesting and educational experience... and it allowed me to extensively "play with sea glass."

And so, the North Beach Treasures web site is now up and running. It is in some state of completeness-- although there is rarely such a thing as a "finished" web site; web sites are continuously "under development."

I hope you'll go have a look!

The Simple Joy of "Finding Things"

People sometimes ask exactly how I got involved with finding little pieces of glass on the beach. After all, even though sea glass has become quite popular and well-known in recent years, it's still a somewhat "esoteric" pastime, compared to things like collecting sea shells or rocks.

I got to thinking about this question in some depth and reflected on the words I wrote in my June 1st update about my childhood and the long days of summer. Then I came to the conclusion that I have enjoyed "finding things" since I was quite small. Not just sea glass. And it seems to be one of those things in life for which which I evidently have a "natural talent" of sorts.

Although my interest in sea glass dates to my childhood, there were many other things I spent time "finding," when I was young-- and I still do.

Chanterelle mushrooms

During the summers of my childhood in Denmark, we'd often go spend the weekend at my aunt's house in the country. And one of the favorite outings (from late July and onwards) would be going to a nearby forest to find chanterelle mushrooms. For a five-year old, I evidently had a remarkable capacity to not only stay focused for several hours, but to actually find these golden treasures on the forest floor. It often mystified the adults who'd been collecting for 50 years, who would find fewer mushrooms than I.

One of my other hobbies-- which eventually turned into my "day job"-- is collecting stamps. Again... especially if you're trying to make money at it... this is a pastime that revolves around finding something. In the case of stamps, finding something other people may have overlooked.

I'm also really good at finding treasures at flea markets, finding lost keys, and even finding places in cities when other people are lost.

Unlike many sea glass enthusiasts-- who collect sea glass in order to use it in some way, or display it in some fashion-- I really don't inherently possess much talent in the realm of "creativity." Sure, I could probably "make something" with the sea glass I find, but odds are I'd need someone else's design to look at and "copy," in order to produce anything worthwhile. Whereas I really enjoy the aesthetics of creativity, I have approximately zero ability to visualize something original in my head, "out of thin air."

And so, I find sea glass for the simple joy of finding.

Which led me to the answer to something else people often ask me: "I just don't understand how you can not KEEP all your beautiful sea glass!?!?!" Truthfully? Once I've found it, held it and enjoyed that process-- along with the zen-like "meditation" that a 6-hour walk along the beach represents for me-- I have very little attachment to "owning" the glass. With very few exceptions, one piece of cobalt blue sea glass is pretty much like any other.

In fact, it actually fills me with more happiness to know that someone artistic is finding joy in creating something beautiful with my glass, rather than just having it sit in glass jars (pretty, I do admit!) collecting dust on my windowsill.

That said, I do have a fairly large personal collection of seaglass, assembled over the past 40+ years. And I still do add to that collection. But, on average, I probably "save" two pieces for every hundred I find-- which means there is quite a lot I end up selling on eBay and Etsy.

Why Would Someone BUY Sea Glass?

It's really quite a good question.

It was originally answered for me quite a few years ago, when I was still living in Texas and sea glass collecting was something I did "just because." At that time, it had never occurred to me that someone would actually BUY sea glass.

I found myself at a street arts fair, and came across a woman (from Kansas, as I recall) who was making jewelry with sea glass. As a beach comber, I found that both interesting and impressive... here was someone who'd figured out how to do something with sea glass, aside from putting it in jars or bowls.

I think I started our conversation with something lame like "Kansas seems like a long way from the ocean." As we started talking, I learned that she'd started making sea glass jewelry with some pieces she'd found while vacationing in the Virgin Islands-- but that all her current seaglass was purchased from a retired gentleman who liked walking his dog on the beach and picking up sea glass. This conversation took place back in the day before sea glass had become "really popular" and as much of a household word as it is today.

Her story certainly "made sense" to me. If you actually USED sea glass and you didn't live near the ocean, you'd have to buy it.

Some years later-- having move to the Washington state coast in the interim-- I had another conversation with a sea glass artist selling her wares at an outdoor arts fair. She "confessed" that even though she lived just a few miles from the coast, she actually bought most of the glass for her work.

"I'm just curious as to why you'd buy it when you can go out and find it for free?" I inquired.

She admitted that perhaps buying sea glass "wasn't for everyone," but she'd decided that she could leave her studio, spend an entire day on the beach and not necessarily find the pieces she'd need right then, or was interested in using. As she was trying to make a living from her jewelry, she felt the need to offer many pieces with "popular colors," and beach combing offered no guarantees that she'd find those-- in fact, they tended to be "less common."

She also pointed out that her time was not "free."

"This is my JOB, and I have to treat it as such," she explained, "In some ways I wish I didn't because I LOVE beach combing, but eight hours spent on the beach means eight hours not spent in the studio, which might mean $250 worth of jewelry I DIDN'T make. And going to the beach when I am dependent on what I find doesn't necessarily mean I'd find the right pieces to create $250 worth of new stuff. When I BUY the glass, I can usually find exactly what I want, buy it, and the guesswork and uncertainty is removed-- and there's no 'waste' so to speak."

As we continued talking, I also came to understand that she was trying to "differentiate" herself from other sea glass jewelry artists by focusing on beautiful and sometimes rare colors like aquamarine and pink. She explained that it could take her months or years to personally beach comb for a couple of dozen "jewelry worthy" pieces of pink sea glass she could buy from a "gatherer" for less than $100.00. Which, of course, made perfect sense to me.

The two "chance encounters" above are at the foundation of how I was originally motivated to start selling some of the sea glass I find. There are two things I really like about selling sea glass: One, I love beach combing but I have always felt slightly... sad... that all I ever "did" with my glass was "accumulate it." Selling to jewelers and artists gives the glass a "purpose," and I like that. Two, I like that I can be a participant in the creative process by helping people get "exactly what they want," to create items of beauty.

The Long Days of Summer

What I have always liked about summer is the long days.

These days I live in a part of the world that has widely swinging tides, so now I don't just enjoy the long days, but I enjoy the fact that summer allows me to go to the beach pretty much any day I feel like it. June is a "beach friendly" month because the low tide points usually occur sometime during daylight hours, rather than in the middle of the night, as they do in January.

It makes me realize that I am more of a "spontaneous" beach comber than a "planned" one. Back in December, I would look at the tide charts and know that I only had a few short "windows of opportunity" on a few days out of the month... and my choice was "go then, or don't go at all."

Now that it is June, I could technically speaking go every day. Alas, my "old bones" wouldn't stand up to that... even if my heart and soul was in it.

When it comes to sea glass, May and June tend to be my months to "stock up for winter," a bit like a squirrel. Since I do sell some sea glass-- and many artists have their "big season" over the Christmas holidays-- I have to put a good part of the glass I find now "away," so I have something to offer, come November.

When I was a kid, I had the perseverance to walk on the beach and "focus" for many hours at a time... unlike many of my friends who would "grow bored" after ten minutes. Looking for sea glass, shells, interesting rocks, feathers and other things has been a lifelong interest of mine. If there is one I thing that has remained constant in my 50-odd years of life, it is a passion for "finding things." It's not a passion that's limited to the beach, however, as I look for everything from lost keys to four-leaf clovers to mushrooms in the forest to esoteric research items on the Internet. For my "day job" I sell rare old postage stamps to collectors. How do I come about them? I FIND them in large piles and boxes of unsorted common stamps.

The Aboriginal tribes in Australia believe that every single person in the world has at least ONE thing they are really good at. I was never much good at things like "football" or "building a career" or "public speaking." However, I AM really good at "finding things" and feel blessed that I have been able to craft a life that allows me to make a living (of sorts) from "finding" things.

The March of Technology

Some weeks ago, my camera took a dive.

No, not literally, as in fell off the table... but it did stop working, after some 30,000 images. I bought it about six years ago, specifically because it had excellent macro settings, allowing me to get within an inch of a piece of glass, and still keep focus.

The good folks at Fuji seem to think that the camera needs a new motherboard. Or some kind of circuit board. These days, nothing is "mechanical." That was another thing I liked about the camera: The zoom and focusing could be done manually.

Call me old-fashioned.

Hearing about the "tehnology" needed to fix my camera made me think about the "old days" of photography. Film. Anyone remember FILM?

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the digital age. I can't even begin to imagine the cost of shooting and processing 30,000 images on film. And I really like the fact that I can take pictures and scrap them, and redo them till I get the exact result I want.

Anyway, while my "good" camera is in the shop, I decided I should have a backup. A "Plan B," if you will. I make my living with a camera... well, at least, a camera is part of my living, and as an eBay seller of collectibles (and sea glass), I'm basically out of business when I don't have a camera. I became very aware of this, when my camera went in for repair... and I found myself stuck with using a scanner. Not good.

So now I am learning a new camera, with all its intricacies.

It is amazing how much technology-- and not just in computers-- has moved along in the course of just a few years. I bought my old camera in 2006, and it was state of the art, at the time.

In many ways it still is, given the price they still fetch, on the aftermarket.

Although the image quality on my new camera-- another Fuji-- is perhaps not as sharp as I would have expected, the gadgetry and add-ons are mindblowing. So is the automation... seems like the term "point and shoot" has reached new levels. You literally don't have to have a brain, nor know a thing about photography... in order to create good pictures. I'm not entirely sure whether or not I consider that a "good" thing.

Still, there's a learning curve. Macro photography of sea glass is not as easy as it looks... and often involves a process of "lying to the camera," in order to get the desired results. It took me several months to "get good" with the old camera.

The process of lying to the camera gets harder and harder, as these pieces of gear become more and more automated. There may be quite a few instances when the camera knows more about taking a good picture than I do... however, close-ups of sea glass is NOT one of those.

And so... that's what I am doing, at the moment... learning to overcome the automation, so I can take good pictures of sea glass.

Five Years

It occurred to me, earlier today, that it has been five years since I started this blog. Well, five years and a few days.

Although I have been a "blogger" since 1996 (blogs didn't actually exist until 1999, but I kept an online journal on a web site-- a LOT of work, without blogging software!), the North Beach Treasures blog was my first attempt at keeping a "micro niche" blog about an interest/hobby. The closest, otherwise, has been my stamp collecting blog-- but there are millions and millions of stamp collectors, and hundreds of thousands of different stamps to highlight and write about.

Not so with sea glass and beach combing.

I have found it challenging, because there's only so much to write about. I've learned that there are limitations, here. Once I've written ONE post about "red sea glass," that's pretty much it... and it makes no sense to write another. Only so much can be said about beach combing, in general.

Indeed, part of my motivation in originally starting this blog was to use it to announce when I had sea glass for sale, that jewelers and artists might be interested in. That said, I really didn't want the blog to be "sales oriented" in nature... but more collector/collecting oriented. Informative, rather than commercial.

I've learned that my fellow beach combers do enjoy looking at pictures of "recent finds." I can relate to that, as I also enjoy looking at other people's finds. So I have at least one kind of "subject matter" I can repeat over and over-- happy it also is a popular one!

I expect I would have more to write about, if I were an artisan or jeweler. But I only collect sea glass for the sake of "collecting sea glass." Selling some of it has become a nice "fringe benefit," and it makes me happy to know that my glass ends up being part of "items of beauty" that other people get to enjoy. That's a lot better (in my eyes) than just having it sit in jars on my window sill.

What's ahead? More of the above, I suppose. I do enjoy writing, and sharing things from my beach trips. For me, a large part of the joy of collecting (ANYthing!) involves the "social aspect" of connecting with others who have similar interests.

Odd Bits: Sea Glass Beads

When people think about sea glass, the idea that comes to mind is typically that some glass object-- let's say a bottle or storage jar-- broke and ended up in the ocean. With time-- and the abrasive effect of water, sand and rocks-- the sharp pieces of glass became the softly rounded and frosted gems we now call "sea glass."

Opaque yellow sea glass bead

However, not all sea glass started as "sharp broken shards of glass."

Today, I'll take a look at a type of sea glass that typically did NOT start as "broken glass," namely sea glass BEADS.

Beads-- as sea glass-- tend to be fairly rare. For one, beads are usually pretty small, so they can be hard to spot, when you are beach combing. In addition, since they are small, it doesn't take a whole lot of rough surf and being beaten against rocks before they completely wear away.

The good news about beads as sea glass is that when you DO find them, they are typically in "whole" condition-- this is not a shape that usually suffers a lot of breakage. Of course, that doesn't automatically mean that they can be used for jewelry, since most tend to have small rocks and grains of sand lodged in the original hole (see photos)-- and these can sometimes be impossible to dislodge, without breaking the bead.

Very rare squared bright green bead

How do beads become sea glass? Usually, they can only be found in places where there were trash dumps on the coast. Sea glass beads usually started as inexpensive glass jewelry that got thrown away when the string in a bracelet or necklace broke and it was too much hassle to fix it. The individual person's garbage made its way to the city/town dump by the seaside, and then ended up in the ocean... after which the process of it "becoming sea glass" is exactly the same as any other form of sea glass.

Most sea glass beads have very humble and "common" origins. A great "treasure" for a sea glass hunter would be to find a "sea glassed" antique trade bead, made in Venice... and perhaps used for trade in Africa or Asia. Since these can cost several dollars each from bead stores, they are very unlikely to have been discarded.

As stated above, sea glass beads are quite rare. And they are getting rarer, because they are one of the few kinds of "discarded glass" that was almost always processed through a trash dump-- and since trash is no longer thrown in the ocean as a means of disposal, there are really no more sea glass beads being created.

A rare deep turquoise bead

Relatively speaking, "color rarity" is completely different with sea glass beads, than with other forms of sea glass. If you think about it, the most common colors used for glass casual/costume jewelry are completely different from the most common colors used for glass, in general. In my personal collection, otherwise very rare red is actually the most common sea glass bead color. Green-- which is common "in general"-- is quite rare, when it comes to beads.

I say "relatively speaking," because no matter what color it may be, a sea glass bead is something I only find as maybe 1-in-5000 pieces of sea glass, overall. In the course of 40-odd years, I have only collected only maybe 25-30 whole beads, and at least half of them were tiny round opaque reds ("seed beads")-- some of which I almost didn't pick up at all, because I was thinking "no, that's just TOO small for anyone to care about."

As an interesting aside, I actually had several beads in my sea glass collection for years without knowing they were beads. I had collected them and decided they were just "a small piece of round glass with a grain of sand embedded at one end." Had I taken the time to hold them up to the light, I would have noticed they had a hole running all the way through them! I bet I am not the only sea glass collector who has had an experience like that.

Red sea glass bead. Note the sand in the hole.

There are no particular ways to find sea glass beads, when you are beach combing. The main thing to keep in mind is that these are so small they are often overlooked.