Need Peace? Go East!

  • About
  • Beside the Trail B&B
  • Granny
  • Our Other Sites

Tag Archives: beach glass

PEI Seafoam Sea Glass

Posted on 2013/03/27 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

Did you know I love Seaglass?

Did you know I love Seafoam Sea Glass more than blue, red or black glass?

Seafoam Green GlassI love the variety: not quite clear (white), not quite blue and not quite green.  Men and women usually disagree on the transition between blue and green. If blue and green are the only choices, I say those on the left are mostly blue while those on the right are mostly green.  Click to enlarge the picture and make your own opinion.

It is such a soothing colour.  After years on beachcombing in PEI we have finally amassed a good critical mass of seafoam seaglass to contemplate a major art project.

How about decorating an entire room? A Google search of seafoam glass room yields almost 200,000 results.  I guess we are in good company. Today, the top hit for “seafoam glass room PEI” is at the Beside the Trail Bed and Breakfast.

I hope you enjoy seafoam glass as much as I do. Come search the PEI beaches for your own seafoam treasures.

Guy

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass .

Hurricane Sandy Seaglass Souvenirs

Posted on 2012/12/02 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

Damage to trees in New Dorp Beach areaCindy and I spent some our our down time on New Dorp Beach.  The first time out was quite an experience.  

 

ploughing sand to reveal walkwayWe could see where ploughs had been down the walkways to move the sand out.  We also saw dozens of downed trees, some littered with garbage – mostly plastic bags.

We had heard that after a severe storm, there was often more seaglass on the beach.  We were not disappointed   In addition to the treasures I spoke about yesterday, We found quite a bit of quality seaglass.

wire wrapped sea glass from Hurricane SandyCindy picked out some of the nicer pieces to use for pendants.  We did not have much wire on hand so we found a craft store where we got silver wire and black hemp to assemble our treasures. We decided it would be nice to hand out souvenirs to the volunteers and to the victims who came to our camp regularly.  I picked out a cardboard box and assembled a makeshift jewellery display unit to show off our pieces.

Sea Glass display from Hurricane SandyWe made 3 dozen pendants and invited people to pick one out for a souvenir.  Some offered to pay us but we had no intention of profiting from other people’s misfortune.  One person insisted on making a donation that we immediately turned into the kitchen fund. After a day and a half, the three dozen were gone.  Cindy made another couple of dozen that we turned into pendants with fishing line.

One day, one of our regular couples was looking at my pendant. “Amulet” she said in broken English.  I said yes.  Here, take it, it will bring you good luck. A few minutes later I saw them again in the food line and asked how things were going. “we got electricity back yesterday but still no heat.” “Wait a minute,” I said. I knew we had two electric space heaters in the supply tent.  I spoke to the organizers and we arranged to give them a heater – at least you can keep one room warmer.  

She touched her amulet and said “Brings good luck.”  That was the highlight of my day.

 

Guy

 

2 Comments .
Tags: beach glass, hurricane .

Markings on Glass

Posted on 2011/11/30 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

Seaglass with writing on itOccasionally, I find a piece of Sea Glass with writing on it.  I enhanced the brightness and contrast on this picture.  if you look closely in the white circled area, you may be able to make out the word JAVEX. So I thought this glass came from an old bleach bottle. Interesting.  I never knew bleach came in glass bottles. So I Googled “glass javex bottle” and wound up on the Glass Gallery website.  Wow! that picture looks like the piece of bottle I found on the beach.

glass bleach bottle

 

Then, I inherited this glass JAVEX bottle.  Information on this bottle is a bit sketchy but it seems the glass bottles went out of production between 1940 and 1960. They were made by the Dominion Glass Company.  So I know my glass piece is about 50 years old, but it does not necessarily mean it has been “underwater” for 50 years.

 

 

 

Bottom of glass javex bottleHere is a picture of the bottom of the bottle.  In future posts I will talk about some of these markings and how they are helpful in identifying the origin of glass.

 

Thanks for stopping by. Next time I promise some news for newcomers to Prince Edward Island.

Granny ~oo~

 

2 Comments .
Tags: beach glass .

Brown and White Sea Glass

Posted on 2011/11/24 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

Brown and clear PEI Seaglass

Brown is very common in seaglass.  Beer bottles are the biggest source of brown glass. However you can get brown glass from old bleach bottles, some soda bottles like Orange Crush, medicine bottles, etc. Looking at the detail of this picture, you will see a couple of pieces with lettering.  Those can be interesting to research and I will speak of this in another post.

As seaglass gets weathered, it develops this “frosted” look.  For some reason, it seems the frosted Brown glass is not as pretty or desirable as frosted green or clear glass.  However, I occasionally find a piece of brown glass that looks attractive enough to consider turning it into jewellery.

To the right, I have a small collection of “milk glass”.  This is the opaque white glass, not the clear glass that is often called white.  The term milk glass refers to the colour not to the origin.  I have also seen it called opal glass. Although I have seen white milk bottles, this is not what milk white glass means. This type of glass was used in dinnerware, vases, pots and the like.  It is rare to find and I am happy to have a few dozen pieces.  Unfortunately, not many of them are jewellery quality.

In the top right, you will see various pieces of pottery.  When you collect seaglass, pick up those pottery items and see if you recognize a pattern or a name.  Who knows you might find something that reminds you of a pottery piece you “saw” as a child.  Among the pottery pieces, you will see a couple of buttons and two insulators.  The latter were probably used on a boat to secure electrical connections.

You never know what you are likely to find while beachcombing.  I have found ONE marble, but I have yet to find a doll part or a piece of (smoking) pipe.

Thanks for dropping by.  Visit later to see some of the more unusual pieces and learn about glass with markings.

 

Granny  ~oo~

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass, PEI .

Almost White Sea Glass

Posted on 2011/11/15 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

I have a lot of glass that is not quite white/clear

I have often wondered if this is the way the glass was originally or if it got “dirty” over time.  I tried and failed miserably to sort this glass into general colour schemes.  Here is a tip for you – wait until your glass is totally dry before trying to sort by colour; you will save a lot of re-sorting.

At any rate, I have some glass that is brown/peach coloured and I have some that is yellowish and some that is greenish.  I often though that the “dirty” yellowish green glass was stained by seaweed but that does not seem to be the case.

 

Also as in the case of the light green or light blue glass, there is always that piece that appears brown on the yellow pile but yellow on the brown pile.  Suffice to say that this glass is not very pretty and unless I find a really unusually shaped one, it will probably all wind up in some sort of  cement mosaic.

I have found out that purple/lavender glass comes from manganese dioxide used as a whitener that deteriorates with exposure to UV rays.  There is probably a similar cause and effect for this glass but I have yet to discover it.  If you have any ideas, I”d love to do some more research.

 

Next time – little brown jugs and other brown glass.

~00~  Granny

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass .

Light Blue Seaglass

Posted on 2011/11/05 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

sea glass that is very light blueThis is a collection of light blue, very light blue and almost white seaglass.  You will see that most of it is flat glass which tells me this is ordinary window glass.

However, it seems this is possibly older window glass that did not have clarifying agents like lead or manganese . . . ordinary silicon dioxide or soda-lime glass.  While I have a considerable amount of this glass, I am having difficulty coming up with a use for it. 

Perhaps I will make a mosaic patterns, like the shape of Prince Edward Island.

Thanks for visiting. Next time, more “almost white” glass.

Granny  ~oo~

 

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass .

Green Seaglass

Posted on 2011/11/03 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

How many shades of green are there?  Well in Sea Glass, there is no limit.  Here is my collection of green seaglass.

many shades of green sea glassIn the bottom right, you have the very light – almost blue clear glass.  This is mostly flat glass as used in windows.  This is more likely the pure silica glass without any clarifying agents.  It has a bluish tint and to some eyes like mine appears green.

In the top right is mostly emerald green- the third most common seaglass colour.  While there is some flat glass, I have mostly rounded “bottle glass”, including a bottle bottom where I can see the imprint “one quart”.

Continuing counterclockwise, we find the medium-dark (drab or olive green).  Many of these come from old bottles, usually wine, that needed to be protected from sunlight.  A few have bubbles in them which is typical of early 1900’s hand blown glass.

On the far left I have several “black” pieces.  These are a very dark green and sometimes you need to hold them to very bright light to see they are indeed green.  These darker greens usually come from medicine bottles. These often had iron added to them, not only for the darkness (uv light protection) but also to harden the glass. Therefore your late 1800’s expensive medicine bottles were less likely to break if dropped.

On the bottom left I have a few brownish pieces. Like the transition from blue to turquoise to green, these pieces tend to appear green next to brown glass but brown next to green glass.

Then I have a dozen or more “one of a kind” greens that range from almost blue to almost grey.  It would be interesting to find the time to explore the origin of all these various colours.  I know some are recent pieces and are the product of modern alchemy but it is fun to discover how we used to “tint” glass a hundred or more years ago.

More on sea glass colours to follow.  Thanks for stopping by . . .

 

Granny ~oo~

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass, outdoors .

The Many Colours of Seaglass

Posted on 2011/11/01 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

Recently, I resorted my entire collection of seaglass.  Now that the summer is over, there is “less” to do on PEI and I needed a challenge. Sorting seaglass by colour is not as easy as it seems.  After awhile the blue and greens and near-whites all blend in.  The pictures I will feature over the next few days are 3/4 of the way into the process.

lavender and blue seaglassClick on the picture for a bigger version.  Here we have some greys, almost yellow, pink, aqua, dark blue (cornflower and cobalt), red and lavender.  So yes I am proud to day I have several pieces of red glass and some pink.  I don’t think I have any yellow glass yet, just dirty glass that has been stained a yellowish colour.

 

seaglass from an old Noxzema bottle

Did you notice in the blue that I have the bottom of a noxzema bottle?  Here it is closer up. I actually have two pieces with most of the word Noxzema on them.  I also have found a piece that says “seltzer”.  I gather that is from a blue Bromo Seltzer bottle. It is fun to see where our glass originated. . . more on  that in another post.

But what about this lavender glass?  That is another story all its own. Clear glass actually has a bluish tint. In the 1920’s, manganese dioxide was added to glass to counteract the bluish tint.  Sometimes, MORE Manganese dioxide was used to actually create a lavender coloured glass.  We later discovered that when exposed to UV rays, the manganese in glass makes it turn purple.  It inherited the name “lavender glass”  Now, different colouring agents are used to make clear glass.

So you might say “like carbon dating”, we can tell how old glass is by how purple it is.  Not really. it depends on two factors: how much manganese was in the glass in the first place, and how long the glass has been exposed to UV rays.  So I suspect I have some purple glass from the 1920’s but cannot ever really be sure.

Come back soon for another colour discussion.

Granny ~oo~

UPDATE!! I have found an article talking about FAKED lavender glass – what a shame.  That is probably what I have and would not be able to date it accurately as OLD 🙁

 

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass, outdoors .

Hobnail Glass

Posted on 2011/10/30 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

I have some hobnail seaglass!  And just what is Hobnail glass?  See the Glass Encyclopedia.

Pieces of hobnail seaglass

Here is my glass.  Note the mistake:  the piece in the centre is just a piece of patterned glass – not hobnail. I have read that translucent milk glass was common for the hobnail pattern but I have never found anything but clear. Though I have found this glass in several different locations, it is all clear glass and the “bumps” are all the same size.  This leads me to believe that this particular pattern was popular.  The small curvature indicates that the pieces probably came from a large bowl.  So I wonder, have you ever seen this pattern?  Do you have any idea of its origin?  I have looked at hundreds of pictures of hobnail glass but never found a similar pattern.

 

Note at the bottom of the picture my three handle pieces.  Found in different locations, these seem to be handles from glass mugs.  Beach Glass does not always need to be perfectly smoothed.  Sometimes, the “different” piece is the one that sets the mind to wonder . . . where could this have come from?

If you have any ideas, or interesting pieces of your own to share, I’d love to hear about them.

Next time, continuing on the glass theme, I will talk about the many colours of seaglass found on PEI’s shores.

Granny ~oo~

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass .

Beachcombing Again!

Posted on 2011/10/28 by Guy Posted in Beachcombing .

It seems the summer has gone on forever.  Granny gets busy in the summertime: part time babysitting, gardening, grandchildren and so on keeps me busier than a cat in a roomful of mice.  I am sorry to have neglected my readers and I am now back in the saddle.

I took the grandchildren with me beachcombing on several occasions this summer and I found quite a bit of beach glass . . . pictures will follow.  Some of you have asked where to find sea glass on PEI.  While some beaches tend to provide seaglass regularly, all beaches can go “dry”.  Yesterday was supposed to be a nice day so I headed out by myself for some quiet time and beachcombing – of course.  

I tried a few spots on the North Shore without any success.  Waves were pounding the shore and the wind was quite bitter.  So I headed East to Souris to get away from the wind.  I found some small pieces there including several pea sized nuggets, perfectly rounded. As I was working my way towards the South Shore, I passed by MacPherson’s cove in Boughton Bay.  I had been to this beach several times and never found a single piece of glass.  I decided to take my own advice (see comments on previous post on beach glass) and have a look.

Blue and green seaglassTo my great surprise, the beach had completely restructured itself since my last visit. In a mere 15 minutes, I had found a handful of glass including those shown here.  Any day you can find a complete moonsnail, blue glass, and depression glass (jadite) is a good day!  See Alice’s blog about Depression Glass and Jadite.

After that, I checked a few beaches on the south shore close to Cape Bear and the Ferry landing with no great success.  Still it was a good day:  I got some fresh air and came home with a cupful of beach glass.

Thanks for visiting.  I promise to talk more about seaglass in the next few days including hobnail glass, and the many colours of seaglass.

 

Granny ~oo~

Leave a comment .
Tags: beach glass, outdoors .
Next Page »

Pages

  • About
  • Beside the Trail B&B
  • Granny
  • Our Other Sites

Archives

  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • January 2014
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011

Categories

  • Anne of Green Gables (4)
  • Beachcombing (16)
  • Crafts (5)
  • Experiences (33)
  • First Timers (8)
  • Food (2)
  • Frugal (2)
  • Hospitality (11)
  • Moving to PEI (2)
  • PEI the Garden Province (43)
  • road trip (56)
  • The Confederation Trail (10)
  • Uncategorized (11)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Pages

  • About
  • Beside the Trail B&B
  • Granny
  • Our Other Sites

Archives

  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • January 2014
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011

Categories

  • Anne of Green Gables (4)
  • Beachcombing (16)
  • Crafts (5)
  • Experiences (33)
  • First Timers (8)
  • Food (2)
  • Frugal (2)
  • Hospitality (11)
  • Moving to PEI (2)
  • PEI the Garden Province (43)
  • road trip (56)
  • The Confederation Trail (10)
  • Uncategorized (11)

WordPress

  • Log in
  • WordPress

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

© Need Peace? Go East!