Sea Glass – “real” and “authentic”

Many people have asked me lately what the difference between real and person-tumbled sea glass is, how you can tell which is which and if I purchase any sea glass.

 

There are some great websites which detail what is real and valued by the sea glass purist. It’s a lot about color but it’s also about size and being sea worn, nature-tumbled, soft and frosty. Here are some links.

http://seaglassassociation.org/GenuineVsArtificial.php

 http://www.westcoastseaglass.net/about_sea_glass_images/QualitySeaGlass.html

 

As for me, to date, I’m a purist when it comes to finding my own sea glass but I will take home a less than perfectly smoothed piece of glass. Sometimes, I favor the rough edge here and there, the unnevenes of a piece of glass, like a person worn more in some spots than others. With colors, I’m not as particular as some. I’m smitten with the rarity of red and know it’s a “gem” when I find it but in terms of what pleases my eye, I love it all. Today I’m wearing one of the earliest pieces I ever found and one of the first pieces of jewelry I ever made. it’s a white medium sized piece of sea glass with pink wrapped around the center three times. No beads or designs to the wire. Only a bead at the top to keep the glass from slipping through the wire.

 

I love it because there are no beads to distract from the simple sea glass. Other times I love the beads. Why do some people drill and others don’t? It’s all choices. Is it really less “intrusive” to the glass to cage it and dress it up than it is to let it hang after a small hole has been drilled through? Who can say? But for me, I don’t like to alter the glass for good. Wire and beads can be removed. Drill holes can’t be refilled. I may fall in love with drilling holes someday. Right now, I’m too attached to the glass to make marks on it.

 

Anyhow, while I love collecting the sea glass myself, I’m not going to give away a gift. When my daughter finds a white and wants to share it, I’m pleased. When a friend makes me a gift with a piece of red at the center and it is from her very own collection I know how precious and divne that gift is and treasure it as such. 

 

However, the stuff that’s made by people, tumbled to look real but has never actually “lived in” or traveled the ocean, well, that’s not the stuff that appeals to me. It’s not all sea glass snobbery either. It’s because, this veggie has a huntress side and I like to “catch” my own “kill” when I’m on seeking.

 

I love the hunt for sea glass and there is thrill and adventure in a discovery or find. Sometimes I even feel a bit like a cat hunting a mouse when I’m on the beach. I’m tracking. I’m crawling rocks. I’ve got my eyes glued to the sand and my back to beautiful sunsets. It’s not always a beautiful spiritual practice where I’m calm, meditative and grateful. Sometimes I’m “after” a purple, anxious for a frosty white and unwilling to leave the beach until I get some unnamed “but I’ll know it when I see it” item. 

 

So far I haven’t tiled my entire bathroom in sea glass, haven’t made fifty-nine mosaic chairs, mirrors and walls. There’ are non sea glass objects in my own, like living breathing people and a cat. However, I’ll have to watch myself and see that it’s me who keeps doing the sea glass hunting and isn’t stalked by desire and gluttony.

 

Catch of the Day: Learning to let go of at least a little bit

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Busy Over at Writing from the Heart

The new topic is out on the Writingfromtheheart@wordpress.com blog and it is, “The Thing About This Body Is….” Lots of writers, including me, have submitted for this topic and are posted. So, I’ve been quiet here of late as I write for that blog and publish and post the writing of others as well.
Check it out if you’re so inclined.  The writing is honest. The focus is on the heart to heart sharing of life and story through writing. The woman who started the writing from the heart workshops believes WE ALL have stories to tell and we can ALL write. We don’t need criticism to get the words on paper but encouragement and the safety to speak the truth. I’m grateful to her for her style of teaching and for giving me more courage to tell all of my stories.

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