Little Presents from the Sea

Ah, December beach combing! Frozen fingers, wind burned cheeks and a dog covered in sticky burrs and bits of dry seaweed, but it was completely worth it. To read the rest of this post, please click to my new blog here

Grand Manan Island

Grand Manan was absolutely beautiful. Part of New Brunswick, the island is located just off the tip of Maine, and is accessible by an hour and a half ferry ride. The hiking and scenery were stunning, and everyone was so laid back and friendly. Its almost like escaping to another world with a whole different set of rules. We asked the locals for a recommendation for dinner, which they were happy to provide, with the caution that we should call ahead first to make sure they would be open that night. I called, thinking I had reached the wrong number when an elderly lady answered the phone with a drawling "hello" and nothing else. "No dear, sorry, don't think we're going to be opening tonight." I want to live in a word where I decide whether my business will be open or not, depending on my life and whims. But I guess that wouldn't work so well in the city.

We stayed at The Compass Rose Bed and Breakfast, which was lovely. This is their dining room, where we started each morning with  yougurt with fresh blueberries and strawberries, along with eggs, toast made from homemade bread, and local fresh jams. Yum.

And of course we scoured every beach on the island. There is plenty of sea glass, and much of it is quite old, but very little is finished to the point where it is suitable for jewelry. These are some of our best finds. The red piece is from a tail light of a vintage car. The large piece is pinwheel crystal, and although the camera hasn't captured it, it has a faint lavender hue.

Grand Manan photo courtesy of   Grand Manan Island Arts

Whats New...

We did the Saltscapes Expo on the weekend, and it was a blast. Local foods, wines and beers (with samples mmmmmmmmmmm), travel information, local musicians and of course great maritime products. It was the most fun show we've ever done, can't wait til next year. I've been busy since then, finally beginning to restock my sadly neglected etsy shop with lots of colourful baubles like the blue crackle glass sea creature above. Crackle glass is usually formed when sea glass is heated, like in a bonfire, and then cooled quickly by being quenched in the sea.

Spice sea pottery- this is the second piece of pottery we have found with this pattern. This piece is quite large, a couple of inches in length.

Reflections- a drop of cornflower blue dangles against a sterling silver disc, stamped with Ocean Beach Sea. I do have a one track mind.

And finally, a fun pair of earrings, little lime green jellybeans on sterling silver earwires. Have a good week everyone!

What I'm working on

I've been enamoured with the warm tones of brass for the past couple of weeks,  must be the cold winter sinking in, pushing me to seek warmth anywhere I can. I spent the morning going through my sea glass collection, remembering summer, and pulled out these little gems of bonfire glass to set off the brass in this necklace to be. I hope to have it and other new brass and silver pieces listed in my etsy shop next week.

Sea Pottery Happiness

We did Christmas at the Forum on the weekend, which was a great show. We met lots of people, sharing their sea glass stories.  One lovely lady and her daughter studied our sea pottery collection and casually mentioned that she recognized the patterns of some of our floral pieces, and that she had the china at home in her attic! The china belonged to the Victoria General Hospital, back in the day when hospitals served patients on real china and not styrofoam and plastic.  The VG has since been amalgamated into a larger Health Centre.

I was so excited that I rambled on to everyone who stopped by the booth for the rest of the day (sorry people, but thanks for listening). And thank you to the kind lady who rescued the saucers from her attic, you made my day!

Grey Goose

Another gorgeous find by my parents in Cape Breton. They found a few greys this summer, rare in themselves, but this one is my favourite. Its perfectly smooth, with lots of frosting and some bubbles evident in the glass, usually indicative of hand blown or very old glass. Too beautiful a piece to cover or compete with fussy metalwork, it was drilled with simple jump ring bails and hangs on a 20" sterling silver ball chain. It was freezing cold here today, called for snow last night, but we didn't get it (thank goodness as we're in the process of having new windows installed). Sea Glass hunting days are almost over for another year. How can that be?

Iridescense

An unusal piece of sea glass that we found on a Halifax beach during the summer of 2008. The piece is dark brown, almost black with a beautiful play of iridescense on both sides. I've never found a piece quite like it. After staring at it for a year now, I'm finally ready to turn it into a necklace so it will be making its way into my etsy shop within the next few days!

Good Earth

When my husband and I are sea glass hunting, there is the slightest little bit of, ahem, competition, around who finds the best piece. If we can even agree what makes a piece "the best piece." But the day I found this piece, I won. Which isn't usually the way it goes, so let me gloat a little. The piece is quite thick, and perfectly round. When held up to the light, the glass reveals swirls of lighter green, and tiny bubbles, indicating it is very old, likely hand blown. Its bezeled in fine silver and hangs on a sterling silver box chain.

Fall

Okay, its fall.
The calender says so.
Kids are back to school.
Some evenings I smell woodsmoke in the air.
But it was 23 degrees today.
23!
Degrees!
The trees don't care, they're turning colours anyway.
My daughter brought me home this leaf at lunchtime.
Gorgeous, firey orange, screaming to be photographed with aqua glass.
So I did.
Nothing worse than screaming leaves.

Blush pink depression glass sea glass necklace

Labour of love the last few days, coaxing the piece of pink depression sea glass from Cape Breton into a necklace. The first step was to make a bezel of fine silver to fit the curves of the glass. Its quite a bit thicker on one side than the other:



Next, the bezel was soldered to silver sheet. I don't always back the pieces as some look better with the light shining through, and cuts down on the amount of silver used, but the silver behind this piece really highlights the floral pattern. Once the bezel is soldered to the sheet, the excess backing is cut away to be used in another project:


The next step was to form a bail by gently curving some silver tubing, which was then soldered to the bezel cup:


Now my favourite part, setting the sea glass. If this was a smooth, round cabachon, I would clean up the bezel cup first, sanding and polishing before setting the stone. Sea glass, with its non-uniform shape, is more challenging to set, and the bezel may be scratched, so I leave the polishing for afterward.


After some filing, sanding, and polishing, its looking more like a pendant. I slipped it on an 18" sterling silver snake chain, soldered on a clasp, and gave it 45 minutes in the tumbler with some stainless steel shot to harden the silver and give it a final polish.



Wish I knew the story behind the glass, where it was from, how it came to be in the sea. The Secret Life of Sea Glass, good title for a novel. Well, I would read it :)

Seaside Treasury

This seaside treasury was curated by Aleutie of Montreal as a tribute to Summer, calm and soothing colours.

Inspiration

I spent a lovely afternoon with buckets of sea glass spread out all over the floor of my studio, sorting and picking out my favourites. These gorgeous pieces were all found on Cape Breton beaches by my parents. I'm most excited about the large pink piece of depression glass, its beautifully patterned and screaming to be bezeled.


I'll be busy the next few days, drilling, wrapping and soldering to get the pieces ready for my etsy shop. Bliss.

Citrus Orange

I love orange, and orange sea glass is a rarity. We found this big beautiful piece this summer on our Nova Scotia shores. I think the glass was originally the rim of a bowl or decorative plate, it is slightly ridged, although that is almost worn away. I was going to bezel it, but couldn't bear to cover up any of the glass. It is a beautiful clear day, and I'd love to hit the beach, but have to go to work at my Other Life job. Sigh.

Sunny Yellow

Just finished this custom order for a lady in the US who sent me her gorgeous piece of glass to bezel. The sunny yellow sings against the silver. Yellow sea glass is very rare, especially a clear bright yellow like this. I want to keep it. But I won`t. I promise.

Sea Glassing in Cape Breton

We just spent a fabulous weekend in Cape Breton, sea glassing, snorkeling, and getting fattened up by my mother's cooking. Its as good as life gets. And then some. We found some truly beautiful pieces of glass, including the one above, but what takes the cake are the thousands of pieces my parents have gathered (and sorted!) since the ice melted off the beaches a few short months ago. Stunning pieces of glass and pottery that are screaming to be made into necklaces, earrings and art. They'll have to scream a bit longer as I have to work at my Other Life Job tomorrow, and then work on some custom orders, but should have some new pieces ready for my etsy shop by the end of the week.



Neil's Harbour beach, where I grew up. My father was a lobster fisherman and once was caretaker for the lighthouse.



Shyloh, patiently waiting for someone to throw her stick, wondering why her people spend so much time poking around on the beach.

VivalaModa Online Magazine

Have you checked out VivaLaModa, online magazine? Its an amazing collection of handmade, independent designers, vintage, and all things beautiful. We are very happy to have our sea pottery necklace featured along side other jewelry designers in their Beachcombing article. Warning: I lost myself for half an hour in the magazine, beautiful finds!

Little Sea Creature

The newest addition to our Little Sea Creature necklaces, our aqua jellyfish. The sea glass used in the piece is quite thick and you can see little bubbles in the glass, which usually means that the piece is very old, before glass was mass produced. One of my favourite things about making jewelry with sea glass is resusing what was once discarded material, and giving it new life. He'll be joining the rest of his family in our etsy shop and after that, who knows where he'll be off to? A well traveled jellyfish. Anyone have a wonderful idea for another sea creature to tackle?