My new favorite hobby... finding sea glass at the beach!!!
Here's a little history on my new hobby. I found this at History of Sea Glass!
"Technically speaking, sea and beach glass are different. Sea glass refers to salt water glass and beach glass refers to fresh water glass. The difference is that glass slowly dissolves in salt water, which gives sea glass a satin-like patina, while it does not dissolve in fresh water. This is because the Ph of salt water is different from that of fresh water.
In the old days, and I mean the old days, because sea and beach glass has been around as long as we have had glass, it was said to be "Mermaid Tears". It was said that everytime a sailor drowned at sea, the Mermaids would cry and the sea glass was their tears washing up on the shore.
And that is the where it comes from....just kidding.
Sea and beach glass is found everywhere in the world, because people have discarded glass in the oceans and waterbodies everywhere. It was natural for waterfront communities worldwide to discard their trash in the water because the water carried it away. Landfills were a terrible health hazard in those days, filled with vermin that carried dangerous diseases like the Plague. The world was a much larger place in those days and the population was much smaller. It just made good sense at the time. This practice is still followed in many third world countries.
Everywhere Sea Glass is found, and it is found everywhere, its value is partially determined by its color. This is because only a few items were stored in red, blue, lavender, purple or pink glass containers. Likewise certain rare tints and shades of these popular colors are found.
For instance, very rare Cobalt Blue, the "sapphire" of the beach, came from such apothacary items as Milk of Magnesia, Vick's Vapo Rub, Noxema, Nivea, and Bromo Seltzer bottles, along with some prescription bottles and perfumes
The extremely rare red pieces, or "rubies" of the beach, might come from perfume bottles, the tail lights on old automobiles, lantern and traffic light lenses, or even some types of old beer bottles, like the bottles made by Anchor Hocking for Schlitz Beer in the 1950's.
Pinks, lavenders, purples, lime greens and other rare shades came from things like perfume bottles and art glass. Many lavenders and pinks come from what was originally clear glass that was clarified with magnesium (lavender) or selenium (pink). The glass has to be clarified with these minerals because the sand from which glass is made is actually amber in color. Over time the sun causes the magnesium and selenium to oxidize, creating the lavender and pink colors.
Greens, browns, and aquas come from beer and soda bottles, and nearly every other source, like Clorox Bleach jugs, shampoos, etc."
I've been trying to find beaches that have a park too! That way Aiden gets to play and have fun too!
So far my favorite beaches are Torii Beach which is on an Army Base close by and Togochi Beach. I've posted pictures of Torii on a previous post where you can see some beautiful pictures.
Recently I found Togochi Beach! This place is awesome (in the slinky voice from the Geico commercial)!!! When you get to the parking lot all you see is the park. Aiden and I love this park... they have 2 cement slides and a huge roller slide and lots of sand.
If you walk up the hill you can see the beach. There is a very low tide so a lot of little places to walk. I'll let the pictures explain the rest!
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| I'm training him to find the best glass!... it's working! |
So far I've found tons of white, green, aqua, brown glass. Rare pieces I've found PINK, light yellow, cobalt blue, bright orange, and a teal and brown marble along with some really cool shells.
I'm going to be crafting like crazy!!!
