MAIN Summer Vacation Collecting Beach Glass

Finding bits of colored glass on the beach has been a popular activity for kids and adults for decades. Sea glass, beach glass, mermaid tears or lucky glass, most beach goers don't even look for these little beauties. Sea shells are much easier to spot, but once you begin to notice the water etched gems of colored glass, you'll be hooked!

The edges of the bits of sea glass are worn smooth by the waves and sand and the colors are amazing. Some paler colors, such as light purple, seem to turn white in the sun, but the vibrant reds and golds are turned to fire when light streams through them.

The brown sea-glass pieces are the most common and easiest to find, but if you keep an eye out you'll soon start to notice the rainbow of light catchers that the sea has created and deposited on the beach for you to find.

Beach glass is getting rarer as the world turns to plastic for bottles and storage containers. Car manufacturers have changed the covers of lights from glass to plastic ending one source of the rare red bits of sea glass. Ecology minded citizens now toss their glass into recycling bins and wouldn't think of adding glass pieces to a lake or ocean. Some collectors warn that in thirty years there won't be many places to find sea glass while you walk the beach. To fill the demand for sea glass jewelry and decorations, some have begun manufacturing faux beach glass.

Beach glass collectors find many uses for these softly crafted bits of color. Some create mosiacs and jewelry while others just display their collections in a spot where light can bring out the colors...

Glass Menagerie - How Unique Is Your Sea Glass Find? - Carole Lambert has been collecting sea-glass since her childhood days growing up in Cape Cod. The article gives you an idea of how rare your find is from the extremely rare orange, red, turquoise, yellow, black, teal and gray to the common kelly green, brown and white. Good ideas for display and crafts are included.

Shards of Glass, Gifts from the Sea - Learn more about sea glass and the current facination with this art work from Mother Nature. References to history, festivals, books and photographers who concentrate on beach glass should help you to find out more on these castaway bits of beauty.

Glass Beach - What began life as a public dump north of Mendocino, California has turned into one of the best places to find beach glass. When the dumping stopped, around thirty years ago, the ocean took over and created a gem center of the first order out of all the glass that had been thrown away.

Northeast Sea Glass Festival in Rockport, Mass - This annual fall gathering brings artists, collectors and sea glass lovers together. The date has not been set for 2006 yet, but there is plenty of info and great pictures of past events.

Beach Sand - Not all of the colorful rocks on beaches originated as glass. Some natural mineral deposits form glasslike rocks that are as colorful and fun to collect as sea glass. This selection of pictures from beaches around the world shows many of the results of water smoothing rocks and glass into gems.

also see -> How to Make a Sea-Glass Jewelry Necklace