Seaglass Bottle Necks and Rims

seaglass bottle necks and rims

Natural, sea-tumbled bottle necks and rims are much coveted by seaglass collectors and jewelry designers like me. As with bottle stoppers, patterned glass, frosted marbles etc, they are considered a rarity.

Teal seaglass pendant by Handmade by Amo'r (SOLD)

If you find a specimen in a rare colour such as red, pink, 'vaseline' (glow in the dark), teal, cobalt etc, then lucky you! You've got a true collectible.

seaglass bottle necks and rims from Dublin

Over this summer, I have found a few bottle necks and rims on various beaches along the East coast of Ireland. These shapes are fun to wire-wrap for jewellery and can become unusual, eye-catching conversation pieces.

The forest green and brown pendants on the right are slightly concave but have no tell-tale ridges. I'm almost sure the green one in particular comes from the 'shoulder' and long neck of a bottle, probably one that held wine. 

The olive green bottle neck piece on the left is much rarer, not only because of its shade, but also due to its distinctive rim. I will be listing the pendant in my Etsy shop  pretty soon.

kelly green, Irish  sea glass pendant

'Ocean Jewel' seaglass pendant is made from part of a kelly green bottle neck. If it came from a beer bottle, then it is quite possibly, close to 100 years old.

Around 1930 it was discovered that brown glass did a better job of preserving beer and so green glass was discontinued for this purpose. Yes, we use green bottles again today as we have better refrigeration and nowadays beer rarely needs to be stored for a terribly long time anyway. However, if this were a modern piece of seaglass it would be smoother, with very little of the tell-tale, crystalline frosting that occurs only after decades in the sea.

Of course, the seaglass could also be from a wine bottle, but it is nonetheless, very old. Frosting occurs when soda and lime are leached from the glass by the water. This is a very slow process. Heavily frosted seaglass is usually 50 to 100 years or so old. Perhaps this piece fell from a trading ship bearing wine from overseas. Its history is held forever secret by the Irish Sea.