The sea glass of summer

Craft & Design Energy & Sustainability
The sea glass of summer
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Packing up for the beach today (yay!), I saw this link on Dinosaurs and Robots to Kevin Kelly’s blog, to a piece about sea glass (which we used to call “beach glass”). Kevin writes:

A name yields knowledge. When I got home looked up sea glass. Aha!  There are books. There are collectors. There’s a national association of collectors. And standards for colors. There’s a annual convention of sea glass collectors and trade show (next one is in Delaware in October).  There are enthusiasts, professionals, feuds. Anything of perceived value will have fakes and counterfeits, and sea glass has those too.

I had my own encounter with sea glass last weekend. A group of Dorkbot DC-ers were fortunate enough to be invited to sculptor Jim Sanborn and his wife artist Jae Ko’s private island in the Chesapeake Bay (where we saw things too amazing to imagine that we’re not at liberty to talk about yet). They have their own beach and it is littered with beautiful pieces of sea glass. I picked up and examined a bunch, not sure why I didn’t bring any home. Here’s some on the porch of their beach house, photographed by Dorkboter Katie Bechtold:

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Chips of Broken Glass

12 thoughts on “The sea glass of summer

  1. rationalpsychic.wordpress.com says:

    This stuff is gorgeous. It gives me some feeling that things like plastic, which is supposed to last forever, may have a natural process that is its match.

    That’s just crazy hope talkin’, folks.

  2. Asatruer says:

    Sea brick is another very neat find… Personally I think it is a little neater than sea glass, but only based on the fact that I have seen a lot more glass than brick.

  3. Lisl Armstrong says:

    Hi,

    Please feel free to join Sea Glass Artists & Sea Glass Collectors which is a community for sea glass enthusiasts. Hope to see you there!

    http://seaglassartists.ning.com/

    Lisl Armstrong

  4. Linda - By The Sea says:

    We have a GREAT site and the LARGEST online community dedicated to sea glass lovers and collectors around the world.

    With close to 750 members in only 3 months online, we have 3000 members photos, 200 forum discussions, 12 groups that feature things like Favorite Locations, Shard ID,Ideas for Displaying Sea Glass, Crafts, How to Photograph Sea Glass and MUCH MORE!

    Chat in real time with members online!

    We are an agenda and jewelry free forum sharing our passion for these diminishing gems.

    We invite you to join TODAY!
    http://www.seaglasslovers.ning.com

    1. Linda J - By The Sea says:

      Well Seaglasslovers on the Ning network will soon be celebrating it’s 1st Birthday on November 20th. Though we were not the “original” Ning sea glass site, we are now the LARGEST and MOST ACTIVE sea glass community site in the world.

      On our Birthday we will be nearing 3000 members in over 44 countries…there are over 11,100 photos, tons of slide shows, hundreds of forum discussions, craft and display ideas, locations of beaches to find sea glass and MUCH MORE! Monthly contest with prizes.

      We now have 2 SGL 2010 calendars and a bunch of fun t-shirts and sea glass loving products that help keep our site Non Commercial and ad free!

  5. Odyssey Sea Glass says:

    Post your beautiful sea glass crafts and photos at Odyssey Sea Glass, the world’s most viewed sea glass site. We’d love to see your contribution!

    David and Lin Schneider

    http://www.OdysseySeaGlass.com

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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