Sea Glass Accessories
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It’s not about where, it’s about when. Generally speaking, the best sea glass is found way off the summer months. In the summer, the beaches are filled with treasure hunters and there’s no foul weather to kick up the new harvest of glass. In terms of where, any working harbor is the best place – and of course right here in Gloucester is where I have found my glass over 20 years.
“Every shard of sea glass that washes up on the shore is the result of chemistry and chance. A bottle or bowl, lost at sea, is buffeted by waves and scrubbed by sand for decades, even centuries. Eventually, a crystalline surface develops on the glass and the edges of the pottery turn smooth as bone, a reminder of humanity’s ability to create and nature’s power to erode. Jacqueline Ganim-DeFalco gathers these jewels and, at her Cape Ann Designs studio in Gloucester, arranges pieces of beer-bottle amber against the elusive ship-light red to produce tableaus on brooches and hair accessories. While “mechanically assisted” sea glass is widely manufactured, Ganim-DeFalco uses only material that has gained its beauty on the ocean floor.”