Turtle Tales: Day 27 - Sea Glass 101

Today was a light day - we did go to the beach to hunt for sea glass and the hunt was good! We spent about two hours going through the rock cliffs (that's where a lot of glass tends to get washed up and caught/trapped) at Kaena Point. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and about 80 degrees! The waves were again too active for us to snorkel, so we just hunted for sea glass.

We have beeen sea glass hunters all of our marriage, and we primarily find our good pieces where we live at Magnolia Beach. After Hurricane Claudette came through our area a few years ago, the sea glass was abundant at Magnolia Beach! We have many colors and many sizes, but it is fun to see what different areas have to offer in color, size and patina. Hawaii is no exception! Today we found our first gray piece of sea glass, and it was a nice size. We also found a very pretty ice blue today, and between these two, the hunt was worth anything else we came upon!

Sea glass, or beach glass, is found all over the world. There is a bounty of seaglass found in the Northeast U.S, California, Northwest England, Mexico, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia as well as Autstralia, Italy and Spain. The best time to look for seaglass is during the spring tides (right now in Hawaii!), and after the first low tide following a storm!

Glass found from inland water ways such as Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes is known as beach glass and is less weathered as those areas do not have constant wave activity or oceanic salt.

The outer surface of sea glass may be texturally varied, with one side frosty and the other side shiny. We have found the glass here in Hawaii to be textured 100% on all surfaces due to the constant wave activity, sand and saline in the area. The patina on sea glass is developed by the constant rolling of the piece of glass in the water and its contact with sand particles.

The colors are determined by its orignal source. Most sea glass comes from bottles, but it can come from jars, plates, windows, ceramics or pottery.

The most common color of sea glass is kelly green, brown, blue and clear purple. This glass comes from companies that sell beer, juices and soft drinks. The clear or white glass comes from clear plates, glasses, windshields and assorted other sources.

Less common colors are jade, amber, lime green, and ice or soft blue.

Purple, citron, opaque cobalt and cornflower blue and aqua are rare but can be found in the right hunting ground.

Extremely rare colors are gray, pink, teal, black, yellow, turquoise, red and orange. We found our first red pieces of sea glass at Fort Bragg on the California coast!

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry, resting and reading! It is amazing how easy it is to do chores in paradise!

Aloha!

Variation on the Green theme!