Splendor in the Sand

By Julie Dean Kessler

When was the last time your heart did a little flutter at the sight of something you’ve been searching for? Okay, there was that guy at the gallery opening – but we’re talking about something you can pick up any day of the week. At the beach, yet.

You meander along the water’s edge, watching for a soft touch of color amongst the pebbles. After a little practice, when you see it, you know it.  It’s those marvelous little bits of history that wash up on the shore and lie there like the little treasures they are. It’s sea glass, and if it doesn’t mesmerize you, we have to wonder about the depth of your soul.

Some call it beach glass, especially along Lake Michigan, whose mighty waves conspire with random stones and pebbles to break, tumble, and toss cast-off glass until it is transformed into smooth, frosted shards. The more opaque the frosting, the smoother and rounded the edges, likely the older the piece. The classic shape is triangular, from a tumbling journey through water and over stones, but the glass can be in any shape.

A Kaleidoscope of Color
The colors? Think dreamy, think dramatic, from rare red to common soft white – and in the color lies a hint to the mystery of their origin and age. The origin of most sea glass is bottles and tableware – with some surprising exceptions like windshields, insulators from telephone poles, bottoms of light bulbs.

See a thick, soft green with rounded grooves? It’s likely from a hobble skirt Coke bottle made between 1915 and the late ’60s. Yes. It gets that specific. But hold on – it isn’t always so easy. Only a black light will reveal a neon lemon yellow that tells you a piece of yellow glass is true (2 percent) uranium glass. The detective work gets to be addictive. Richard LaMotte, author of Pure Sea Glass, obligingly wondered off to nearby Chesapeake Bay to find some sea glass for his artist wife’s jewelry making. That little jaunt led to his book. Now, says the man who’s collected thousands of pieces, “When I find a really good piece it gets me juiced up. Once you get into sea glass, it has a way of taking you in and making you want to learn more.”

Luckily for us, he did learn more: Pure Sea Glass is an indispensable guide to finding and identifying those tantalizing, sometimes elusive little jewels of nature. Filled with astonishingly beautiful photos of his own sea glass collection, the book shows colored shards and traces the history of glass-making: red likely has gold in it; cobalt blue may be from a poison bottle; thick, deep aqua was a canning jar.

On the phone, he says he’s gazing at a shard from 1730. Next to it is one from 1930. You can hear the awe in his voice at the three-century span of history he holds in his hand.

Glass “Gems” for Handcrafted Jewelry
Same goes for Michigan City artist Linda Mickevicius, who fashions jewelry from genuine sea glass (not mechanically tumbled sea glass that obviously lacks the allure of the real thing).  Just a few years ago, “I found a piece of sea glass that was lovely and flawless; that’s when I got hooked,” says Mickevicius. An accountant by trade, now her weekend business, Beach Bum Jewels, yields items for sale at such Indiana locales as Riverside Marketplace, Free Artisan Gallery and the Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City. The mystique of the glass has brought family into the business: her daughter is the designer and her grandson joins her in silversmithing.

More Than a Hobby
Serious sea glass collectors can gabble about their finds at annual festivals and online through the non-profit North American Sea Glass Association (www.seaglassassociation.org). You could even make a profit from your discovery: fine pieces are sold on eBay, with orange the rarest of all colors (1 in 10,000 pieces found).

But really, people – the magic is in spying the frosted piece, sometimes resting on its own little sand pedestal. The marvel is in feeling its smooth contours and mulling its past. The fun is discovering at home that it isn’t the common white after all, but a lovely amethyst, and you feel a little smug because you happen to know the soft purple is from manganese used until about 1915 that’s turned once-clear glass into something enchanting.

Joan Langley has kept a charming tradition in 42 years of living near the Michigan City shoreline. She tucks a few pieces of her collected sea glass into a bit of pretty netting, ties it with a ribbon, and gives it to departing guests as a reminder to return someday.  

Interested? Get out there and start looking, because, while loss of homes along Lake Michigan due to erosion has contributed to fruitful beach forays here, environmental concerns are making it less acceptable to dump stuff into the lake, thank goodness. 

The Collector’s Guide to Finding Sea Glass
Richard LaMotte’s tips for novices: (We recommend getting his deck of cards with colors on one side; on the other, tips, history, and clues.)

 •Go out after storms or heavy winds 

 •Look during full moons (but duh, not at night); they affect Lake Michigan tides. 

 •Don’t wear sunglasses.

 •Look at gravel beds along shorelines.

 •Sift through gravel with your foot for hidden pieces.

 •Don’t walk in your own shadow.

Free Artisans Gallery
624 Franklin Street
Michigan City, IN 46360
219-809-0624

Pure Sea Glass book
www.seaglasspublishing.com

Sea glass jewelry
www.beachbumjewels.com
www.chesapeakeseaglass.com

Linda Mickevicius
www.beachbumjewels.com