Post on 30-May-2015
description
Sea Glass: Art Made by Man and Nature
Also known as Mermaids’ Tears, Beach Glass, Ocean Glass, and Trash Glass
Julia Dragomirescu©
2014
Worn by waves, recycled by sea, tossed on shores, broken
Product of both nature & man Bottles, jars, glass thrown away/from shipwrecks
are tumbled by bodies of water to form colorful gems of shore
Vanishing due to use of plastics & recycling Glass from ocean = sea glass, glass from fresh
water sources = beach glass
What Is Sea Glass?
Wherever you find people & water you will find these sea glass gems!
Walking along shoreline, look around pebbles, shells & other flotsam bits & pieces
Beach glass found on rivers, lake shorelines & bays The more current/wave action, more likely to find smooth
top quality sea glass Higher water PH & rockier beach glass will age (become
smoother) faster & better
Where Do You Find Sea Glass?
Traditional gems (diamonds, opals, emeralds) made by nature, refined by man
Sea glass originally made by man (bottles, jars, containers) refined by nature to become smooth frosty beach found gems
Nature is big rock tumbler recycling our pollution!
Can take 7-10 years in constant surf environment to make sea glass
History and Journey
Authentic piece has no shiny spots, well frosted, has smooth tactile edges
Before mid 1960’s, everything came in glass bottles or jars
Plastic was product of future, recycling did not exist
Coastal areas & islands, trash collection developed later on, residents buried trash in sand or tossed it in ocean
Famous places: northeast United States, Bermuda, California, Scotland, northwest England, Hawaii, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia, Australia, Italy, southern Spain
Best times to find sea glass: during spring tides perigean (occurs three/four times a year when Moon’s perigee [closest point to Earth during 28-day elliptical orbit] coincides w/ spring tide [Earth, Sun, Moon nearly aligned every two weeks]) & proxigean as well as first low tide after storm
Sea Glass Around the World
Most sea glass comes from bottles, as well as jars, plates, windows, windshields, ceramics, sea pottery
Most common: kelly green, brown, white (clear); come from beer, juice & soft drink bottles, white comes from clear plates, glasses, windshield, windows
Uncommon: jade, amber (from whiskey, medicine, spirits, early bleach bottles), golden amber, amberina (spirit bottles, made from 1883-1900, made by mixing compound [w/ gold] into glass & reheating it, left to cool resulting in different colour)
Multi-coloured Palette
Uncommon: lime green (soda bottles from ’60s),
forest green & ice/soft blue (from soda,
medicine, ink bottles, & fruit jars from late 19th
to early 20th centuries, windows, windshields)
Very uncommon: purple, citron, opaque white
(milk glass), cobalt, cornflower blue (early Milk of
Magnesia, poison bottles, artwork) & aqua (Ball
Mason jars)
Extremely rare: gray, pink (Great Depression
plates), teal (Mateus wine bottles), black (older,
very dark olive green), yellow (1930s Vaseline
containers), turquoise (tableware, art glass), red
(Schlitz bottles, car tail lights, dinnerware,
nautical lights), orange (least common, found
once in 10,000 pieces)
Old black glass bottles that had iron slag added during production to increase strength & opaqueness were sometimes broken in shipment, were jettisoned at beachside wharf upon landfall
Contained wine, gin, whiskey, medicines & liquids subject to light damage, refilled w/ local spirits, herbal tinctures, extracts, medicinals
Medicines & liquor sold in green bottles, olive green, brown & cobalt for gin, whiskey was green & brown bottles
The liquor bottles for sea shipment were square to better utilize space in shipping crates; poisons in blue bottles.
Modern correlations: brown beer bottles, Coca Cola green glass bottles
Antique Black Sea Glass
Places to find: slave trading ports, former colonial ports in slave-molasses-rum triangle, former colonial locations w/ sea trade routes & motherland shipping ports
First man made glass in Jamaica arrived w/ Christopher Columbus on 2nd voyage when he thought island was Spain in 1494
Landed at Dry Harbor, Discovery Bay on the north coast, glass on board may or may not have become sea glass is part of romance & wonder of beachcombing
Black glass is green/brown when held to light, appears black to unaided eye
Weathering & oxidation, together w/ UV light interacting w/ metallic oxides & chemicals in glass & seawater affects colour of sea glass over long exposure & time frames
Resembles extrusive igneous rock basalt, weathered black obsidian, natural black volcanic glass
• Gas bubbles are trapped in old glass, impurities and irregularities in original bottles were common & indicator of age
Beachcombing: activity that consists of an individual "combing" (searching) beach & intertidal zone, looking for things of interest or value
Fill decorative jars w/ collections, can trace shard's origin, artisans make jewelry
Some collectors create works of art by putting them in cement to create mosaic
Sea Glass As a Hobby
Activity offers natural prescription to maintain emotional, physical, spiritual health
Use knowledge of how storms, geography, ocean currents, seasonal events determine arrival & exposure of rare finds
Eco-conservation: do not kill mollusks for shells, dig holes in sand, gouge cliff faces for fossils/reefs for coral
Stewards of seashore, working w/ government agencies to monitor shore erosion, dumping & pollution, reef & cliff damage
Beachcombers
Art sea glass: originated as art glass, was decorative household item that was broken, discarded into sea, extremely rare
Lundberg art: Lundberg Studios: premier art glass manufacturing company located in Davenport, California founded by James Lundberg, in 1970; created vases, scent bottles, paperweights, lighting; pieces found there: millefiori rods, iridescent glass, multi-colour glass
Seaham art: region In County Durham, byproduct of glass making & wastes, includes fisheye/pontil sea glass, colours combined by ACCIDENT waste tossed into sea (exceptions: flash glass used for window making & friggers - pieces made to practice glass makers skill)
Types of Glass
Blown glass: shaping of glass by blowing air through hollow rod into centre of molten glass gather, does not have seems, has pontil scar
Bolder’s: massive size, very round, largest weighs over 8 pounds, started as lumps of glass cleaned from kilns
Bonfire (campfire/trash fire): melted in fire, smoothed by sea, features: mixed colors, internal debris, bumpy texture
Bottle glass: originating from old bottles (and jars), most prevalent
Bubbles: smaller version of Bolder’s, almost perfectly round, mainly found in Seaham England, started as lumps of scrap glass
Cane: colour rods wrapped around each other creating unique color patterns
Pattern sea glass: bear distinctive pattern, markings include product names & decorative patterning
Ridged Sea Glass: tops of old bottles & jars that used threaded tops
Slag glass: leftover product of glassmaking industry
True end of day (spatter): object made w/ two or more colors swirled together as seen in glassware; refers to workers in factories combining small leftover batches of glass at end of day to avoid wasting costly materials
Curvature: indicates piece was item such as bottle/jar
Embossing: used widely in commercial products before use of printed labels, product name molded w/ glass bottle, window pieces that had texture, gives clue to age & origin
Fish eyes (pontil): used to describe discarded punty tips from glass making industry
Sea Glass Terminology
Frost: feature that indicates authenticity, happens when glass has been in water for long periods of time, water leaches out soda & lime in glass, creating white "frost"
Gemballs: round pieces of sea glass Hydration: part of aging process where
hydrogen ions in water replace sodium ions/soda in glass resulting in sodium hydroxide
Kickups (push up): steep rise/pushed-up portion of base, done primarily for strength enhancing, stability, & content sedimentation, modern: bottoms of champagne & wine bottles, thickness can determine age
Marbles: from children's toys, ballast for ships, spray paint can marbles, Codd Bottle closures, common: machine made cats eye marbles, rarest: handmade Onionskin/Swirl Core marbles
Milli/Millefiori: Italian for "thousand flowers," used to describe mosaic glass objects
Pores: under microscope resemble small "C" shapes, result of rocks, sand & gravel scouring surface of aging hydrated glass
Pontil Pieces (fish eyes): tip glass part of pontil/punty rod, when product was finished being blown/molded, rod slightly pulled & snapped off, color inside of fisheyes show how outside of glass cooled yet inside continued to stretch
Pitting: result of years of tumbling in water, gravel & sand, always irregular sizes, heavier pitting (rocky beaches) indicates age & environment
Punty (pontil rod): metal rod used in glassmaking to "gather" molten glass from glass kiln for blowing/molding, pontil scars visible on many handmade glass objects
Rarity: color, size, condition, shape, grade, frost, thickness, bubbles, embossing, source indicators
Rounds: pieces that were bottoms of bottles
Shard: used to refer to piece of sea glass Stoppers: glass bottle/apothecary stoppers
used before commercial bottle closures, most common is seafoam green color used in Heinz 57 sauce
Whimsies (friggers): non-production pieces that glass makers used to practice their trade, include portions of glass canes, paperweights/dumps, rolling pins, pipes, figurines, sock darners, gavels, doorstops
Reasons: more beachcombers looking for sea glass, littering has increased, rarer to find
Artisans/crafters tumble newer pieces to create "twice-tossed" glass, others create artificial sea glass, "craft glass", from ordinary glass pieces using rock tumbler
Cons: chunkier, lacks provenance, technical ways (long-term exposure to water conditions creates etched surface on glass that cannot be duplicated artificially)
Pros: cheaper, wider range of colours Real: has frosty, almost powdery texture; "C" shaped
design on outside, not rounded; artificial lacks all these properties
Imitations or Artificial Sea Glass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beachcombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_glass http://www.bytheseajewelry.com/theglass/wh
at.php http://www.bytheseajewelry.com/theglass/se
aglassterms.php
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