Thursday, July 2, 2009

sea trash


sea trash

DETROIT — It may have once been part of a beer bottle. Or a vase. Or a Milk of Magnesia container.

But after decades of being tumbled by water, after years of having its edges softened and rounded, it sits on the beach, a colored shard of tan or turquoise refracting the sunlight.

Once part of a whole object, it has become its own entity: sea glass.

These pieces created by humans for function have been reclaimed by water, tossed by the lakes and seas and given back to us as fragments of beauty. And now as the weather warms, beachside residents — and tourists — are blessed with the possibility of days spent by the beach hunting sea glass.

But what do you look for? How do you get started? What colors should you seek? How do you turn it into decor or jewelry?

To help out, we've put together this sea glass primer:

Pure sea glass consists of pieces that have broken apart from lanterns, headlights, bottles and other glass items that were dumped or thrown into lakes and oceans. Over 15 to 60 years, and sometimes for more than a century, the forces of waves, sand and stone have rounded the sharp edges of these glass shards to create smooth, translucent shapes.

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