Why I Love Making Sea Glass Jewellery...

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𓇼 Sea glass has to be one of my favourite natural stones to create beautiful and unique jewellery with. Let me tell you why…

I first discovered sea glass when seeing beautiful posts over social media that reflected stones in an unusual texture that I hadn’t seen before. I was used to seeing shiny, faceted and reflective stones that I had used many times before in my work and as a jeweller, we often become excited to explore new stones that we haven’t had the chance of using before. 

The more I looked at the sea glass pieces on my screen in front of me, the more I became fascinated with the organic shapes and unusual frosted finish. I decided to research this fascinating stone to explore where it had originated from and most importantly, where I could find it! After years of using sea glass, I am always surprised to this day at how many people know about sea glass and sourcing it from beaches. I had never heard of it when I had first discovered it and was naively surprised at how many people enjoyed hunting for this beautiful stone that was not just for jewellers but for hobbyists too! There are many enthusiastic sea glass hunters who turn this beautiful stone into beautiful artistic pieces including handmade wind chimes, illustrations, paintings and so much more! I had never known anyone close to me who had discovered sea glass so I was instantly surprised to know this could not only be sourced by yourself but on what I consider the most beautiful places on earth - beaches. 

𖡡 Norfolk 

I was so excited to find out the sea glass was found on beaches and the beauty of knowing it could be sourced and hand picked by myself. To be able to wander a long strip of beach and find beautiful and fascinating stones that I could go home and experiment with making exquisite jewellery from. Sadly, there was only one problem. I lived in one of the furthest places in England from the sea. Yes you read that correctly, the furthest place in England from the sea! Luckily, my mum and her partner had recently brought a beautiful seaside holiday home in Norfolk which meant that we could visit often to do some wonderful sea glass hunting. 

"The journey of each piece is the mystery that keeps these pieces so special to the finder."

At first, I found sea glass quite hard to find, with the many stones on the beaches it could be quite hard to differentiate the stones from the glass. Some pebbles could be quite transparent with the ever ending sea flowing back and forth over the stones. I can’t tell you how many stones we picked up thinking it was sea glass over the years when it turned out to be clear pebbles and in all honesty, to this day, we still do. Over time, we become quite the sea glass spotters! I don’t think there is a so-called ‘trick’ to this but I do think that with practice, it does become easier to spot glass from the clear and transparent pebbles. Sea glass when frosted, has a gritty texture to it and I do think the more of it you find and handle, the more you can spot it from the crowd (of stones) Of course the coloured sea glass is much easier to sport amongst the stones and pebbles as you can find bright and wonderful coloured sea glass pieces such as pink, red, lilac, blue and orange. It’s the clear, transparent glass that can be harder to find. The beauty of finding these pieces is the excitement that comes with finding it. Still to this day, we get excited at the pieces we find as each piece is so uniquely shaped and each piece has its own character and colour. This excitement still carries on as you try to find the more ‘rare’ colours as well as the ‘rare’ pieces. It’s what makes the challenge of sea glass hunting so fun! 

When I found my very first pieces of sea glass, I was instantly excited to take my findings back home and explore what wonderful jewellery creations I could craft. One of my favourite things about making jewellery with sea glass and that I am always telling people, including my students, is the constant unique shapes of each and every individual piece. Some sea glass is flat whilst others are rounded or curved. Some sea glass is evenly frosted whilst some sea glass has small cracks and dents on the tops or the sides. Some sea glass is perfectly shaped whilst some pieces are irregular and oddly shaped. There are various colours of sea glass and various colours of the same colours such as different hues of blues, greens, browns and so on. Some sea glass pieces are tiny or small whilst others are medium sized or large. You can find sea glass pieces that have unique markings on them, depending on where they came from or how unusual the piece of glass was before it entered the ocean. There are so many unique sea glass pieces that have originated from unique glass pieces beforehand. The journey of each piece is the mystery that keeps these pieces so special to the finder. It’s these things that make each piece of sea glass so special to turn into a piece of jewellery that can be continued to be treasured forever. 

𓇼  Some Pieces I've made with my sea glass findings...

I love that with each unique sea glass shape, not one day is ever the same when making these pieces into rings, pendants, charms and other pieces of jewellery. It’s what keeps the excitement alive when finding a new piece that is unusual or perfectly shaped. Being able to examine how well a piece may look once turned into a ring as well as not knowing how the piece will look once it has been shaped due to its uniqueness is what makes every creation so compelling. As a jeweller, I can say that sea glass has so many wonderful meanings and special qualities to each piece that makes it so special to use. Although I love shiny stones (being a magpie) I also love being able to use stones I have been able to hand pick from the beach. The excitement of finding each piece and the mysterious meaning behind each piece that can be carried onto its wearer. I love that not every day is the same with these special glass pieces and not knowing how far each piece has travelled through the ocean and how long it’s been there. I love the natural nature and the beauty of how the sea has recycled these pieces into beautiful stones that are then used for keepsakes in jewellery and other artistic pieces. I hope this sums up the many reasons why I love making sea glass into jewellery and I know that my story hasn’t ended here with this beautiful stone. I hope to carry on exploring the many beaches and the beauty that nature allows us to create from this wonderful and mysterious frosted stone.

𓇼 Fancy having a go at making beautiful sea glass jewellery?! You can do just that with Ellie Jade in one of our wonderful jewellery sea glass making workshops! Explore our workshops with the link below...

Ellie Jade's Jewellery Sea Glass Workshops