My Sea Glass

As promised, here is some of the collection of sea glass that was found on the beach in Seaham yesterday. It was as a result of a meeting with StuartDB that this find was accomplished and he of course has a much more impressive collection and can photograph them more expertly, as I have just noticed. But nevertheless, this is my collection and I wanted a record of it.

Sea glass, however pretty, is officially marine pollutant. It is not a natural substance, but manufactured glass that has either been thrown into the sea deliberately or has arrived there by accident. Fragments of glass have then been polished into smooth pebbles by the action of the waves. So waste made beautiful by nature. If only other waste that is carelessly discarded could end up this way, rather than becoming an unsightly hazard.
 
Sea glass can be found in many places, but Seaham is particularly famous for it because some of it is antique glass, i.e. it has been in the sea for over a hundred years. The area was known for glass manufacture and huge quantities of hand blown glass bottles were shipped out from here. Much of the waste from this industry ended up in the sea and some of the most prized pieces of sea glass are those made up of several colours from the final remnants of a vat of glass, which were thrown out at the end of the day (you might spot one such piece in the picture).
  
Much of the glass is now collected commercially and used to make jewellery – and rather lovely jewellery too.