For my jewellery creations I use Genuine Cornish Seaglass from my local beaches, found by me and friends and family I'm walking with. You may be familiar with my special collection of Red Seaglass Jewellery I created for Christmas 2022, I sourced this Genuine Red Seaglass, through Etsy, from a lady in Scotland as red is a very rare colour of seaglass to find, particularly in Cornwall! This was a one off to achieve a certain creative vision I had, in every other case the Seaglass I use in my jewellery is Cornish. This is important to me as I make it clear to buyers that the Seaglass is Genuine Cornish glass so they know where it comes from. This leads to many customers buying it specifically because of their love for Cornwall or ties to Cornwall, maybe even a specific location in Cornwall.
As you can see in the About section I talk through some of my favourite beaches for walking, seaglass hunting and fossil collecting. Although I love finding any and all Seaglass, I only use lovely smooth pieces found in Cornwall for my jewellery making. The other pieces I find are added to the seaglass jar!
Now getting into the term 'Genuine', Genuine Seaglass has come straight from the sea and has been found on a beach/coastal. The glass must not have been altered in any way, in regards to the shape or finish of the glass, by either filing or tumbling or chemically altering etc. The only thing deemed okay to do to seaglass before working with it is cleaning the salt off with some soapy water and some people like to add a dab of oil to create some shine but this is personal preference and I don't do this as I prefer the look of the glass without the oil!
There has been a few occasions where a customer has sent me a piece of glass, often a larger piece, that they ask me to smooth, shape or break into smaller pieces (and then smooth) to make custom jewellery for them. One example was a large piece of glass which I broke down into four smaller pieces, tumbled for about a week and then set into four different necklaces for her partner and two children to all have so they could all share the one piece. Whilst I love doing things like this and accepting new challenges to provide a customer with sentimental jewellery that they'll treasure typically I prefer working with Genuine, unaltered, seaglass.
It can sometimes be quite tricky to tell the difference between Genuine Seaglass and Tumbled Glass but with time and practice and working closely with Genuine Seaglass it becomes easier, and then Tumbled Glass or 'fake seaglass' actually stands out very obviously!
Genuine Seaglass always, to some degree, will have an element of 'frosting'. This is owing to the salinity of the sea, that and the chemical composition of glass. Sodium Hydroxide leaches to the surface of the glass as a result of prolonged contact with the water...beyond that, don't ask, chemistry was/is not my forte! If you're a seaglass collector to any degree then you'll be familiar with this frosting that is often confused with salt residue (there may also be a little salt residue!). You may also be familiar with the tiny little dents and c-shaped nicks in the surface of the glass happen as a result of the rolling around and bashing against other stones as waves crash and the tide rolls in and out.
Often this frosting and small dents will not appear on 'Beach Glass' which is how we typically refer to glass found on a river bed or lake side, obviously because there are no tides and not waves in the same way as there are in the ocean. However some natural tumbling can occur over time but the pieces are much less likely to become very rounded or as smoothed as Seaglass. This little selection of glass is from the bank of part of the Falmouth estuary, so the glass is subject to the tide and some very small waves but you can see that it's nothing like the glass found on the North Coast where it is subject to larger crashing waves. Whilst I love these ceramic pieces the glass pieces aren't really usable but will look great in my seaglass jar!
Lots of companies and people do sell Tumbled Glass Jewellery and trinkets etc which is of course fine if they're clearly labeling it as such, the problem comes when they try to hide that fact or deceive buyers. It can be a fun way of recycling glass and getting crafty, particularly if the glass is a unique colour. However, often rather than clearly stating they have tumbled the glass themselves they use terms such as 'eco-friendly glass', 'recycled glass'. 'cultured glass', 'seaglass style', or 'twice tumbled' which means they may have found it one the beach but then tumbled it which takes away from it's Genuine quality. Even more confusing is when they write 'seaglass' in front of these terms to just add long confusing descriptions in order to confuse.
Generally if a piece of glass is super smooth, almost too translucent, seems like a rare colour (but still at a cheap price point), and just overall seems too good to be true then it probably is! Make sure you double check item descriptions when buying any Seaglass jewellery if you're after the genuine stuff! Happy shopping!!
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