Where to Find Sea Glass

 

Sea glass is broken pieces of glass that had been discarded or washed away into the sea hundreds of years before now and then tumbled around on the ocean floor and smoothed through the sands in the waters to form beautiful pieces of glass known as sea glass that many people collect or make into jewelry.

 

Sea glass comes from many different sources such as garbage dump sites out in the middle of the ocean, plates and dishes, bottles and containers, glass flasks, old glass medicine jars, taillights from boats, glass art pieces or any type of glass that has been discarded or dropped into the ocean prior to the 1960s but most of it has been from the late 1800s.

 

Sea glass comes in several different shapes and colors depending on where in the world one is hunting for the unusually smooth and marble-like orbs.  Some may be flattened pieces of sea glass while others have ridges or patterns within the delicate pieces of glass.  Those with patterns or ridges are worth more to collectors and jewelry makers.  The wide variety of colors include white which is the most popular color found on any beach, red or orange, which is the most rare of colors along with purple which is also rare.  Other colors include amethysts, violent, seafoam greens, cornflower, UV lime, emerald greens, cobalt blue, pink, teal, jade, topaz, honey amber, gray, black, turquoise, olive greens and yellows.

 

The best place to find the rare red sea glass seems to be Puerto Rico however there are many places with beaches that the sea glass washes up for treasure hunters to pluck them out of the deep sand if they are willing to dig a little bit.  Patience is the name of the game when looking for sea glass.

 

The best way to locate a good spot to find sea glass would be to do a little research before traveling to a beach location.  Check out your local library and investigate some of the beaches you want to visit to see if they had a large amount of activity - ships, tugboats, and cruise ships - anything that might have introduced glass into the water approximately 50 to 100 years ago.  Also note that historical waterfront sites in combination with the water traffic.  These places may not still be there but if they were a hundred years ago or in the 1800s then there is a good chance that you will find sea glass washing up on the shore from discarded bottles, Depression Era glass, dishes and bowls and many other items made from glass at the time that have tumbling around on the ocean floor for hundreds of years.

 

The New England area, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia and Cape Cod were each a bustling seaport back in the day where many glass items could have fallen overboard and could now be washing ashore as beautiful pieces of sea glass.  Nearly all of the Hawaiian Islands and very beautiful beaches seemed to have more sea glass than other shores.

 

Besides the New England coastal areas, Puerto Rico and Hawaii much of the Mediterranean Sea along the coastal areas of Italy were many of the beaches are mostly rocks one can find sea glass from hundred-year-old ship wrecks and discarded wine bottles from years and years ago.

 

Sea glass is now a rare and much sought-after commodity from both collectors and jewelry makers around the world.  Hunting for sea glass can be a fun and exciting hobby however it takes patience and a real will to find it.