Liebster Award for Boston Sea Glass

A wonderful thing happened to me yesterday. Sue Redekop of Find Hand nominated this blog for a Liebster Award! This is an award whose purpose is to highlight smaller blogs with 300 or less followers. Thank you so much Sue!

So here's how it works:

1. Once you have been tagged (and want to accept) create a post on your blog and add the Liebster Award Banner above.

2. Link back to the person who tagged you and say you accept.

3. Choose 3-5 of your favorite blogs, link them in your post as well and let them know that they have been chosen.

The aim is to bring unknown blogs to light (less than 50 followers is ideal, so please don't tag someone with 3000 followers!)

So thank you Sue at Fine Hand, I accept and am highly flattered!!

Here are my blog choices:

1. Glass Tracker Here is someone that I can relate to, out in the cold, digging around in the mud for sea glass and bottles and artifacts. I love the pictures on the blog, as well as their Etsy shop.

2. Coleen Sgroi of Voice of the Artist
Her blog was recommended to me by my friend Kirsten. Coleen is creative, inspiring and her posts are well thought out.

3. Ellen Wilson of Rock Island Food. Ellen is a very talented writer and chef. She blogs about food, family and life. She is also my neighbor and friend!

So those are my choices. I hope you enjoy reading these blogs!

More Wedding Jewelry for Beach Brides

Since my last post I have had a few more wedding orders, so I decided to put together a few attendant jewelry sets. I was married in Key West and I love the idea of a beach wedding! Like your bridesmaids, each necklace is one of a kind! Other quantities or color sets are available!

Seafoam Green Mermaid Bridesmaid Set

Purple Iris Bridesmaids Set

Ocean Blue Bridesmaids Set

Sea Glass Wedding Jewelry

A few weeks ago I received an email from a bride who was looking for some sea glass jewelry to give as gifts to her bridesmaids. She was having a destination beach wedding and looking for a variety of greens and blues.

I photographed a pinwheel of sea glass pendants, similar to this, and we discussed them as though they were numbers on a clock. She picked the ones she liked and I replaced others until we had a nice selection of sea glass for the wedding. This was our second-to-last set. There is one more that was not in this photograph.

It was challenging to find 12 pieces that were reasonably similar in shape, size, color, thickness and that were smooth enough to be jewelry quality. I had to dig deep in my collection, then my mother's collection, and then my father and step mother's collection.

I wrapped them in the same gauge of wire and finished each pendant with a single Swarovski crystal. It is a little nerve wracking to create jewelry for somebody's wedding, but they were happy with the results...

I am planning to add more bridal jewelry and accessories to my Etsy shop for the spring, however custom orders are always welcome!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Red Sea Glass

Just Listed for Valentine's Day!

This sea glass jewelry is made from a piece of lovely and rare red sea glass. I found it last December while on a solitary beach walk on a highly top-secret secluded sea glass beach. My pockets were full, and it was time to go home, but I decided to take one last sweep of the beach. This little piece was probably under water when I arrived, but the tide had receded about a foot, exposing this beauty.

Red is one of the most prized colors for sea glass collectors because it is very rare. According Richard Lamott's book Pure Sea Glass, the color is achieved by using a powdered form of gold chloride, which is an expensive process.

This particular piece is called "flashed glass", which is a manufacturing process that fuses layers of different colors together, in this case, a layer of red is fused to a layer of yellow. This was probably an economical way to achieve the look of solid red while using less red glass. This piece is at least fifty years old, probably much older.

This piece is wrapped in 14K gold filled wire and comes with a 24" gold filled chain and a nylon drawstring gift pouch. It can be viewed by clicking here.

More Colors, 14K Gold & Sterling Silver

I have been very busy and very lucky. First of all, I found the most beautiful little piece of peach sea glass, and before I even got home, I stopped at my mom's to say "Hi" and she claimed this for her own.

Now, she has never asked for a sea glass necklace before, she said she was waiting for the right piece, and I guess that little peach one was it. But she wanted it wrapped in gold, which I have never used before, so I ordered some from fellow Etsy sellers Lanna's Jewelry Chest and also Thunder Moon Supplies and produced these! The two blues are wrapped in sterling silver and the rest are wrapped in 14K gold filled wire. I can't wait to show it to her. I think it will look nice with her coloring.

The other bit of good fortune I had was that my step-mother Andree was generous enough to share her sea glass collection with me. She and my Dad have been collecting for years and they live on a great sea glass beach, and she is very particular about the condition of the glass she picks up. So this was a huge treat for me. Thank you Andree!

And the last positive thing that happened is that my grandmother very kindly purchased 6 necklaces to give as gifts. Most of the items from my last post including the Wampum necklace.

You can see from all of the pictures I took that I can't get enough of looking at all of these pretty colors! I feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many warm and generous women, in this case my mother, my step-mother and my grandmother. Thank you!

New listings for 2011

www.etsy.com/shop/BostonSeaglass