Sea glass rainbow hearts

My Sea Glass shop is now open for business on Etsy.  I've created this lovely sea glass hearts in wooden frames in the colours of the rainbow.

See all my sea glass creations on Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SunSeaGlassArt
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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Sun Sea Glass Art

Getting creative with pebbles and glue, I'll be showcasing my work soon.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

How to make Christmas decorations from sea-glass

I've collected sea-glass for years and collecting it is one of my favourite things to do on the beach, apart from playing frisbee, eating ice-creams and plodging. Searching for sea-glass resulted in finding a post-Medieval rosary bead. But anyway, I digress. I collected so much of the glass that I kept it in a big bowl in the living room.

 And then I thought I'd have a go at making some Christmas decorations with it.  My lovely sister-in-law drove me to a craft shop in her fab car for a day out.


We went to Dainty Supplies.  It's something of a mecca for those who like crafts.

I didn't know where to start or what to look at and took sis-in-law's advice on what might work with glass to make it look festive. 

Here's what I bought for approx. £30 total. A glass bowl, some white LED lights, glass glue, red plastic beads, clear plastic baubles, clear plastic star shapes, clear plastic heart shapes.

I started by sorting my sea glass into different colours - mainly white, blue and green with some brown and a tiny bit of the much-hunted red. Then I sorted colours into shades.  Then I started sticking and glue-ing and that's where the fun began.

I was very happy with what I had accomplished (okay it might not look much to you if you're an experienced crafter, but remember this was my first time doing anything so artistic!).  I moved on from stars to hearts and used some of the red plastic beads I'd bought in with the sea-glass I already had.

Fortunately the glass glue dried clear so there were no embarassing tell-tale glue stains.

And now, with a bit of sparkle behind, here's how they'll look when they hang on the Christmas tree.

And the glass bowl I bought will contain all of the remaining sea glass with the LED lights inside it too, so it'll look something like this, below.

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I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

Personal pebbles

Growing up in a British coastal village, summer sunny days at the beach were the norm.  The beach was sand and shingle with some large, smooth, white rocks at one end that my brother and I nicknamed Polar Bear Island. I can't remember why and we never saw any.  At the beach, after egg and sand sandwiches, warm lemonade and a splash in the freezing north sea, I became fascinated by, and collected, the small glass pebbles that littered the shore.

My favourite colours were the turquoise and the pinks but I just as easily loved the navy blues, the transparent ones and even the dull brown and greens. Pebbles collected on the beach would end up in an old, clean, marmalade jar that I kept by my bed so I could wake up and marvel at the colours, shapes and sizes of this wonderful glass. I know, I was a dreamer as a child. I think I still am. I also kept another marmalade jar with ladybirds in it, but that's another story, and yes, there were airholes in the lid and things for them to eat.

Anyway, my fascination with glass as a creative medium and art form springs from picking those pebbles off a north-east beach on the edge of a pit village. I adore glass art and when I'm up in Sunderland I always try to pop into the National Glass Centre to see what's going on and what's new in the shop. 

On my last visit there I went a bit woah! There were pebbles for sale, made into jewellry and art, only there were calling it seaglass. Seaglass? Never heard of it! They're pebbles, surely?  But seaglass it is. It's doing a roaring trade and it's not exactly cheap. I've just spent too much on a pair of pebble ear-rings and it's made me more than keen to start collecting again next time I'm on a beach. And this time I'll keep the pebbles in an empty, clean, marmalade jar by the side of my bed until I move back up north, back when I'm near the Glass Centre again, where I'l take my treasure to someone who knows about these things. Someone who'll help me make my very own jewellry from the jewels I find. Problem is, with so much glass recycling going on these days, will there be any seaglass pebbles left?

See also: Glass class, and Gorgeous Glass Jewellry