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Your online resource for Genuine Beach Sea Glass, Sea Glass Jewelry, Unique Gifts, Mosaic Supplies & more.
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The following was written by Charles Peden:
Sea glass is found nearly everywhere in the world and comes from glass objects which find themselves in our rivers, lakes and oceans. This sea glass comes from shipwrecks, landfill, pleasure boaters and many other sources.
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Some of the sea glass was introduced into the bay during the 1800s and early 1900s when San Francisco expanded their city by building out on to the tidal flats. After the great earthquake and resulting fire in 1906, a lot of rubble was used as fill material. Several pieces have been found which are melted down from their original state. Either they are slag glass, campfire glass or glass from the 1906 fire.
The history of the area really dates back to the 1600s when Spain first sent explorers into what became known as San Francisco. The beaches this sea glass comes from has also offered up such treasures as antique Coke bottle fragments, electrical insulators, sea lion teeth, agates, jade and naval sailors buttons. Antique marbles, glass bottle stoppers, pottery fragments and china fragments too.
Much of the lavender sea glass comes from the WW1 time period, during that time a shortage of a bleaching agent used to make the glass clear or white, resulted in the use of a different bleaching agent which then caused the glass to over time turn lavender or purple. The chemical came from Germany and due to our being at war with them, the supply dried up.
One of the rarest types of sea glass is Vaseline glass. Vaseline glass is known by that name for it's striking similarity in color to Vaseline. The color is caused by uranium dioxide crystals and turns the glass a greenish yellow color. The color was not very popular and as a result not much was produced. An unknown property of the glass at the time of it's early production was that it was radioactive and would glow with a light of it's own when exposed to a black light, or concentrated UV rays. Even though the glass will register on a Geiger counter, it is considered "safe" as long as it is not ground/polished and the resulting dust becomes airborne. During the 40's with our country at war again, all of the uranium was seized by the government, further restricting production of the glass. The glass is still produced today, but in very limited quantities and is highly collectable.
To learn more about sea glass and sea glass collecting, I recommend reading Richard LaMotte's book entitled Pure Sea Glass it came out in 2004. You can pick up a copy from us and we include a small bottle of genuine beach sea glass from San Francisco Bay with the purchase of the book.
To learn more about sea glass, visit the North American Sea Glass Association's web site. I along with Richard LaMotte cofounded the association in response to what we saw as a growing need within the community of those who love sea glass.
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