Beach Glass

As a child living along the Long Island Sound, we took beach glass for granted. It was abundant all along the shore of the Sound, which is fed by the Atlantic Ocean. We would collect it and put it in empty mayonnaise jars and our moms would empty them out at the end of the summer. Like the GI Joes that got buried in the back yard and the comic books they threw away, who would ever think they would one day be worth something.

Today, if you want to risk it you can purchase "authentic" beach glass on eBay. Man- made tumbled glass will be smoother and have more uniformity than glass that has been broken up and tumbled naturally by waves. It's difficult to discern the fake from the authentic, but rest assured if you are purchasing a bag of glass at a touristy location, it's more than likely man-made.

Beach or Sea Glass is made from glass pieces of jars and bottles that have been tumbled around and smoothed by the sand and water of oceans or lakes. On the beach, the finished product is small pieces of frosted, smooth glass. Pieces can be found in a wide assortment of colors but most commonly blue, green, clear, amber or brown. Shades of red and purple and even yellow are less common. Collecting beach glass has long been a hobby of beach goers, artisans and craftsmen who use it to make jewelry and other decorative objects, but more and more it's hard to find things made from authentic beach glass. Many people I know who have grown up near the water's edge have at least one jar of glass they found years ago.

I have traveled many beaches and it's really difficult to even find one piece of beautiful beach glass in the sand, I've more or less given up on finding this treasure. Perhaps the reason for this is the materials used today may not decompose as rapidly, more likely it's the more common use of plastic and metal instead of glass for jars and soda bottles. Another reason is the increased awareness of our environment and the need to protect it. After all, beach glass is the direct result of littering. Boaters and beach goers left their refuge behind twenty or thirty years ago. Just as these pieces of litter became valuable by the forces of nature, they have become even more rare and valuable by our concern for the environment.

I love beach glass. I like to touch it, roll it around in my hand, hold it up to the light and keep it in my pockets. It's a shame that it has become so rare. I can't even remember when was the last time I actually found a piece on the beach. Unfortunately, my collection of real beach glass is rather small these days. I've been known to succumb and buy some for decorative purposes, but those pieces don't hold the memories or good times that the real things do.