Sea Glass Blog — beach glass

While every piece of beach glass is special, something magical happens when you find a piece that glows. Mixed in with all the regular pieces of sea glass we find on beaches around the world, there are sometimes pieces that were made with fluorescent materials. If you shine a black light on them, they will glow a bright green, orange, red, purple, or yellow color. These are known as fluorescent or ultraviolet glass, or simply UV glass. Shine on Scientifically, fluorescence is caused by substances in the glass absorbing invisible ultraviolet light and then releasing the energy as visible light...

The latest sea pottery mystery I came up against was identifying a small shard of sea pottery with just a portion of the maker's mark on it. With only a bit of content to work from, my Google searches turned up nothing. So, I asked on Instagram and Sea Glass Nation set me on the right path! First, @pearlshaynea suggested that one of the words might be "Buffalo" and @carl_edquist confirmed that it was probably hotelware. My next Google search landed me in an unexpected place that yielded the first clue. In 2003, the Yosemite Research Center published Victory Culture: Archeological...

While some purple sea glass started out as intentionally purple pieces, many pieces of purple or amethyst sea glass were originally clear glass. They changed color over time in a process called solarization, due to the chemical composition of the glass. All glass is made of silica, but sometimes there are impurities in the sand, such as iron, that can cause a light green discoloration. To offset the discoloration, glassmakers add different ingredients to the molten glass. One of these decolorizers is manganese dioxide, sometimes called “glassmakers’ soap.” Manganese dioxide has been used for thousands of years for this purpose,...

Following is a list of annual Sea Glass Festivals. Know of some others? Be sure to let us know what we should add either in the comments on on the Contact page. Be sure to check the web pages of the festivals as the dates and locations are subject to change every year. Cayucos Sea Glass Festival March • Cayucos, CAhttp://cayucosseaglass.com International Beachcombing Conference March • Bogue Banks, North Carolina http://www.thebeachcombingconference.com/ Eastern Shore Sea Glass and Coastal Arts Festival April • St. Michaels, Marylandhttp://www.ophiuroidea.com/eastern-shore-sea-glass-and-coastal-arts-festival.html Buffalo Beach Glass & Coastal Arts Festival April (even-numbered years) • Hamburg, New Yorkhttp://www.glassingmagazine.com/festival/ Great Lakes...

What's the difference between beach glass and sea glass? It's really pretty simple! Just to make it as clear as possible, I created a Venn diagram with sea glass. First, there's the giant set of all glass. Inside that is all the glass that has somehow made it to a body of water and gotten tumbled by the waves until it's smooth and soft. The glass eventually landed back on a beach along a  sea, ocean, lake, river, bay, or other body of water. This is all considered beach glass. Finally, inside that is the glass that was found specifically on...