Along the coast of California just north of Mendocino in a town called Fort Bragg, lies Glass Beach, a once favorite site for finding sea glass to make into sea glass pendants. The beach today is surrounded by a lovely park and you can find many people combing the area between the rocks, on the sand, and in the low tides search for sea glass. What is sea glass and how did it get there?
Sea glass can actually be found all over the world in oceans, on beaches, and even in lakes, streams, and rivers. Glass has been made since prior to 2000 B.C. Throughout all of those years, people have either thrown broken glass into the waters, or glass found their way there on their own over time. These shards of glass tumble over and over, across rocks, sea life, and sand, until they are finally smoothed out from the ocean’s environment. These pieces of sea glass are colorful reminders of days gone by. When you find a piece of sea glass, you wonder “What type of bottle or glass did this come from?” and “Who used this glass many years ago?” If you do find some sea glass today, it probably isn’t from any period before the 19th century, but there can be exciting rare finds.
The area near Glass Beach was basically a dumping ground in the early 1900’s. People threw entire automobiles over the cliffs along with their garbage. This common practice resulted in the ocean churning through broken apothecary bottles and automotive tail lights. While the beach has been combed through and there are not as nearly many sea glass pieces as in the past, there are still treasures to be found. However, these days, the park service is diligent in making sure people don’t take the sea glass from the beach, and it is left for others to enjoy. Take a picture, but don’t take the glass.
You can find sea glass pendants, sea glass charms, and sea glass earrings in local stores nearby. You can also purchase sea glass jewelry online. The next time you are on a beach anywhere in the world, see if you can find some pieces of white, seafoam green, turquoise, red, or blue sea glass. Start a collection from an area where you can remove these treasures from the beach and have your own beach glass jewelry to enjoy.