Seaglass Bottle Stopper

One of my favourite pieces of beach treasure is this intact, sea-tumbled bottle stopper that I found on a shore near Dublin. Originally a club sauce stopper, it is quite a rare find. Isn't it simply gorgeous?

seafoam seaglass bottle stopper

fully frosted seaglass pendant

Natural seaglass is glass that has spent decades tumbling in the salty waves of the ocean. The silt, rocks and elements polish and smooth any ragged edges. More importantly, the water eventually leaches minerals, namely sodium and potassium, from the glass, causing that frosted or etched look that cannot be faked. Only time and tide achieve it. A highly frosted piece must have been in the sea for well over 100 years. 

Glass bottle stoppers were particularly popular in these parts in the 1800s before solid cork stoppers became more commonplace. Flat-top stoppers with cork sheaths around the shank were much used for sauce bottles from the mid 19th century. Not surprisingly this style is known as 'Club Sauce Stopper.' The cork would have eroded away in the sea decades ago. Today glass stoppers are still found in retro-styled perfume and apothecary bottles, for example. 

partial sea glass bottle stopper

 This partial piece was found on a North Dublin shore. The round rim has been eroded right away but you can still tell it is an antique bottle stopper. It is a beautiful teal colour. 

This intact one was found on a South Dublin shore and is a lovely seafoam colour. This greeny aqua tint often seen in old seaglass is caused by the iron content in the sand used to make the original glass.

 I don't intend wrapping it into a piece of seaglass jewellery. This beauty is more of a collector's item to hold onto for the joy of having found it.

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Want to see some rare red seaglass I found? Please click here

Click here to see some interesting shapes in white seaglass

Seaglass bottle necks

How to clean Seaglass and sea pottery

Beach Combing. Arklow Pottery Mark

Recently I got to go beach combing again for the first time in a few months. As we hadn't had many storms in Dublin, with unusually sunny weather, there wasn't much treasure washed up on the shore but I did get a few beauts.

Irish sea glass and sea pottery, Dublin 2014

The big piece may say 'Riverview' but as it is not that buffed by the sea, it is not the most interesting shard to me. The blue and white, flowery triangle is perfect for a pendant but I will  have to work out a very light wire wrapping design so as not to cover too much of the pattern. The old and gnarled green sea glass at the top is screaming out to made into a rustic keychain. 

However, the creme de la creme is the white piece of pottery near the front with the trademark on it.

Arklow Pottery ironstone mark on sea pottery 

This is clearly an Arklow Pottery mark.  You  can just about make out the words 'Made in Republic of Ireland. Ironstone.' Founded in 1934, Arklow Pottery is very well known here. Most of us grew up eating off Arklow pottery crockery and milking our tea from Arklow pottery jugs. Sadly, the company was eventually taken over by Noritake only to cease production in 1999. But Arklow is still an old staple in many an Irish kitchen. If you've got a few of the older pieces, hold on to them as they are becoming collectors' items.

Ironstone was a type of hardy ceramic that was developed for mass production in the early 1800s in Staffordshire, Uk. What was different about it was its iron slag content. The first potter to coin the term 'ironstone' was Englishman, Charles James Mason, but he was not the only manufacturer to produce this type of delph.

I'm off to research a little into Arklow Pottery trademarks to see can I find out more about this piece. 

In the meantime, if I've sparked an interest in beach combing for sea pottery, you might like to learn a little about it so here are a few older posts to help:

A Little About Sea Pottery.

How to Clean Sea Glass and Sea Pottery.

And please click here for some sea pottery jewellery.

'Sea bird' Irish sea pottery pendant, blue &white

Tuesday Treasuries, July

Treasuries are showcase lists of Etsy goodies from various shops. They are artfully put 

together by members of the Etsy community.  As always,  I am grateful to be  included.

'Beachcombing' by ICAlien shows off all sorts of goodies connected to or found on the Irish beaches. I'm thrilled to see my Irish sea glass keychain in this beautiful treasury. 

I was out searching for beach treasure a couple of weeks ago and this reminded me that the few bits of pottery and sea glass I found are still rinsing in water...time to take them out and see what I've got. I will take photos of anything interesting in there.  If you wish to know how to clean sea glass and sea pottery click HERE

Interesting Sea Glass Finds

Living about an hour from the coast, I don't get to beach comb as often as I'd like. I've been out just once since last October but I picked up a few interesting pieces.

Sea glass  and sea pottery with pictures or letters on them are always fun finds. This piece must surely be from a sauce jar or perhaps a bottle. I wonder if it had a club sauce bottle top like the ones I found last year? (Click to see club sauce stoppers)

I also found a few pieces of blue sea pottery and a small specimen of cobalt blue glass. It is rare to find a big piece of frosted cobalt sea glass on a Dublin shore, although this glass was commonly used for medicine vials such as Milk of Magnesia bottles. I wonder was the glass a little thinner and more brittle and is this why? Anyone??

I also found this small piece of white frosted sea glass with the number 117 on it. I've a hunch it is the beginning of a batch code. There is also a pretty dot pattern on it. It may be from the base of a vessel.

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Learn how to clean sea glass and sea pottery HERE

See my sea glass and sea pottery jewellery and ornaments HERE

A 'Cuppa' of Cool Sea Pottery Finds

It's been a while since I've had a chance to go beach combing for some cool sea pottery and sea glass so it was refreshing to have a poke around on a tiny Dublin cove last week. Fancy a cuppa?....

I'll just have a small one thanks ;-) Only beach combers/sea pottery collector-nerds like me will appreciate this but I really love these pieces. I wont be using the concave base of the cup for anything other than display but I might try to wire wrap the handle (turning it upside down) and incorporate it into something...there's a seed of an idea going round my head.

Time to put the kettle on!

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HOW TO CLEAN SEA POTTERY AND SEA GLASS

A LITTLE ABOUT SEA POTTERY

SEA POTTERY JEWELRY

Curious Sea Pottery Finds

 

Fellow sea pottery nerds out there will understand my delight at finding these curious specimens,  recently on the Dublin shore. If you know nothing about beach combing for sea pottery, click HERE to get acquainted with this addictive hobby.

The dark red and white shard is nicely frosted and there are traces of its original glaze.. It has a raised pattern and I'm not sure which way is up. As yet I have no clue as to what it might come from. The other side is plainer and more matte yet still a deep red shade. It makes me think that it may be a decorative flower pot, bowl or vase, as the manufacture deemed it worthy of colour on both sides. The groove on the outer rim will help when I wire wrap it, but the tricky bit will be to avoid hiding the pattern.

This is obvioulsy the drainage hole from the bottom of a terracotta flower pot. It's a fun find, but a little clunky for making jewellery. But I have a couple of ideas in my head for a quirky ornament, perhaps for a garden.

Finally, the piece de resistance; a beautifully intact, patterned, green tile. It is about the length of a matchbox and as thick as the tray inside one.  It is well frosted and leeched by the sea but the colour is still true, if a little enhanced by sea flora. It is probably a few decades old but not of the same vintage as most of the pieces I have found. Much of the beach-worn sea pottery washed along the Irish coast tends to be 19th and 18th century. This may or may not be old, but its good condition means it has not been in the sea for 100 years, more like 10 to 40, at a  guess.

 I've only given it a rinse out as I haven't figured out the best way to clean it without fading it or damaging it. I shall probably revert to the safest means a good soak in washing up liquid and cleaning with my hands, and absolutely no scrubbing brushes. An artist's paintbrush may come in handy.  If anyone recognises the pattern or what exactly it might be, I'd love to hear from you. 

I'll be back with some lovely pieces of sea glass and sea pottery which are currently soaking in soapy water.

Happy beach combing!

Another Seaglass Bottle Stopper

I can't believe I found another, intact, seaglass stopper!! OK, technically I didn't find it. I was standing right beside it, obliviously examining a piece of sea pottery I'd just picked up off the sand. It was my Etsy friend Heli of Heli MG Tufted Luxury whose sharp eyes honed in on it. She pounced on it yelping in excitement and nearly frightened the life out of me. Heli generously gave the coveted treasure to me to add to my collection of rare finds.

The stopper on the left is one I found a bit further up the coast a few weeks back. It has a pointier nose and a small flaw on the under rim. This latest find is also a seafoam colour, has a rounder stalk and  is perfectly intact. Both are beautifully frosted by the sea and must be very old. Last month I wrote up a post explaining a little about this type of sauce bottle stopper. To read it CLICK HERE

There are some pieces I just can't bring myself to wire wrap into jewellery and I keep them to be admired just as they are. This is one of those special finds. Though our other beach combing companion, Mo of Huggle Knits, suggested I wire up some sort of stand to hold it in. Great idea and a new challenge for me to try out. I have a few designs floating in my head now.

To read how to clean seaglass click HERE

To read about seaglass stoppers click HERE

to see my seaglass jewellery click HERE

Who Says White Seaglass is Boring?

White Seaglass

White or clear is the most common colour of natural seaglass found. That doesn't mean it's never of interest.  Recently I found several cool pieces in fabulous shapes. They were of the clean-looking, pearly white variety. The odd-shaped nugget on the left is destined for a keychain methinks. The others may end up as pendants or Christmas ornaments...I will know when I go to wrap them in silver.

 All of them are heavily frosted, so must be several decades old. Frosting occurs when the soda and lime are leached naturally from the glass by the sea. This is a very long process and it can take a 100 years or so to produce a really 'crusty-looking' piece.

Found on a Dublin shore, this fan-like, sun-ray design is stunning. I would hazard a guess that this piece is from a bowl or decorative dish of some sort. It reminds me of some of my Mum's Irish crystal. Wrapping it in silver wire will be a challenge as I don't want to cover up the pattern, but rather, work with it. I am half tempted to use this as a paperweight (though I have to admit, paperweights are surplus to my needs and I'm not a big fan of shelf brick a brack.)

This shell-like piece reminds me of a certain potato crisp (chip to you in the USA.) It will make a pretty pendant as it is the perfect size and shape.

frosted seaglass bottle stopper

 I was thrilled to find this bottle top. It's especially rare to find one of these on the Irish coast.

 

Unfortunately, it's not completely intact but it is nonetheless, a very special find. Again, I may keep this one but if I decide to wrap it, it will present an interesting challenge.

White seaglass may not be so rare, but you can make lots of beautiful things with it. Here are some of the items I've made from white seaglass:

Fairy Bookmark and white, unisex seaglass pendant

(fairy ornament, sold)

To learn about shades of BLUE seaglass click: HERE

To learn about shades of GREEN seaglass click: HERE

To see PALE (SEAFOAM ETC) shades of seaglass  click HERE

To find out how to clean seaglass and sea pottery click HERE

Recent Red Seaglass and Pottery Finds

 

 Red is one of the rarest and most valuable of colours to find in genuine seaglass. Every seaglass beachcomber hopes to come across a piece or two. This is the first specimen I have ever been lucky enough to discover. It's small, but it's complete and I love it!

When I spotted it among the shingle on a Dublin beach, at first I thought it was a sweet! It is the right size and shape and of course the bright colour does look as tempting as candy. No wonder I mistook it for a sugary treat, but that was partly because I couldn't believe my luck. Thankfully I didn't discard it!

Once I got it cleaned up in soapy water I knew for sure it is a seaglass bead. It might be one of those bright beads used on fishing lines to attract fish. There was a piece of old, rotted and rusty-looking wire or beading string inside it, which came out while cleaning.

There is still a black stain running through the centre. I'm not sure if I will be able to remove that.  I will try running some lavender oil through it. Lavender oil is usually good for removing black marks on seaglass and as a bonus, it is antibacterial. It's worth a try I guess.

Last week I took a trip out to Skerries, a seaside town, North of Dublin. Though it was a beautiful day, the beach was practically deserted and very clean. I found not one single piece of beach treasure on the super clean strand, but as the tide was out we were able to poke about in the rocks and shingle leading around to the harbour. Though I had a disappointing yield, I did find one or two very interesting pieces.

My friend picked up this red and white, semi-opaque seaglass. It's an interesting find, but it might also be worth nothing, except for its lovely colour. I don't know much about this type of glass yet.

I do know that fully opaque sea glass or milk sea glass as it is often called is considered to be a poor relation to the transparent sort. However, I can't quite classify this piece as such. It reminds me of semi frosted, vintage vases and dishes, the kind your Granny might have had. Perhaps it is better described as sea pottery. Or perhaps it is just milk sea glass that has not been in the sea long enough....something for me to research so...

On a recent break at Rosses Point, Sligo, I found this cute piece of sea pottery with a red, floral design on it. It is beautifully 'chalky' or sea-worn and is probably very old. Well-worn sea pottery found in Ireland is often 100 years old or more.

This piece is the ideal shape for wire wrapping a pendant. It's not very large, but by the time I  have it wrapped with a bail on top, it will become a decent, medium-sized pendant.

In the meantime, I dream of one day finding a really great, pendant shaped and fully frosted 'ruby of the sea.'

To learn about shades of BLUE seaglass click: HERE

To learn about shades of GREEN seaglass click: HERE

Simon the Gecko goes Beach Combing

Simon the travelling gecko is the ward of Carrie. He has spent the last year or so visiting Etsy people to see what they are up to. Most recently, he has been a guest at my home. Here is the second installment of his stay with me. Click Here to jump to Carrie's blog post about Simon's beach combing trip:

Simon goes beach combing

Not My Granny's Teapot

Just listed this brown sea pottery pendant in my Etsy store. This is another one of the pieces that I plucked from a shore near Dublin recently. The changeable weather has washed up lots and lots of beach treasure along the coastline. Yesterday was so wet I didn't feel like going out so I stayed in and wire wrapped several pendants, including this one:

brown sea pottery pendant

It does look awfully like a dinner service set my Granny had. I assure you it's not. My Mum is the custodian of said china and I doubt very much that she hauled it to the coast and chucked it in the sea!  I'm sure the pattern will be familiar to a lot of Irish and English people. The piece has no sharp edges and I'd say it's been tumbling in the Irish Sea for a few decades. I can't help but wonder whose kitchen it might have come from.

sea pottery from Ireland

 This is another piece of brown pottery with what may have been a floral pattern. The swirly design I made fills in a blank spot where the pattern is completely missing. The swirls represent the movement of the sea.  This piece is more 'chalky' and faded than the larger one above. I reckon it is twice as old. Very worn sea pottery found in these parts is often 100 years old or much more.

Teal Seaglass Pendant. A Little Help From My Friends

Recently I was out beach combing for seaglass and beach pottery near Dublin with my talented friends, Mo of Huggle Knits and Heli of Heli MG. Click HERE to read about our day out.

Teal seaglass pendant, BREEZE

 Here is the first of the pieces that I made from my haul of pirate treasure.  'Breeze' is pale teal seaglass pendant. The seaglass is a piece of an old bottle neck. The sea has tumbled it nicely, softening the edges and leaching it of minerals, achieving natural frosting. It is a beautiful bluey-green colour, one of the rarer finds in beach glass.

Our day turned out even more fruitful as I may have found a new way to hang my pendants. When not using sterling silver chains, I hang the more affordable, seaglass necklaces and button pendants on rubber, cotton or suedette cords but I wanted to try something different.

When Mo was showing us one of her new crochet necklaces, I had a Eureka moment and asked her would she make me a few crochet chains as an experiment.  She sent me a few different types and colours and I have been testing and playing around with them ever since. I decided to try out this black wool chain on 'Breeze' pendant and added a satin-covered button to complete the necklace.  Mo and I will be discussing fibers and options etc. I'd love to hear your opinions please?

Fun Piece of Sea Pottery

I promised to show more pics of the seaglass and beach pottery I picked up a few weeks ago on a Dublin strand.  I laughed when I found this piece of sea-worn porcelain:

What a wonderful phrase to find! I am pretty sure I will wrap this as a unisex pendant. It would make a fun gift for father's day or on graduation day perhaps.

Shades of Blue Seaglass

Blue is one of the rarer shades of seaglass, especially the darker or more unusual varieties. On Dublin shores it can be quite hard to find decent blue beach glass,  including cobalt. I have mostly found the very tiny pieces that are beautiful for mosaics or display purposes, but too small to wrap in wire.

 Cobalt seaglass and sterling silver pendant (sorry, SOLD to a friend)

 I gather that historically, white, brown and green glass have been more commonly manufactured in Ireland. Indeed, cobalt is a shade associated more with imported sherry bottles or perfume and apothecary vials. Having said that, it was around, if to a lesser extent. For example, a common staple in Irish medicine cabinets would have been  Milk of Magnesia and the original bottles were made of cobalt glass up until the mid 70s.

I wonder if this very weathered, and obviously old, chunk came from a bottle of this traditional laxative or perhaps from a vial of scent or a decorative piece of tableware? The piece is too rugged for jewellery making, but I may use it for an interesting keyring.

 seafoam (bluey-green) seaglass with very obvious, natural leaching

If purchasing seaglass, beware of fakes or at least be aware that 'tumbled' does not mean it was found on the shore.  Natural seaglass that has been leached and frosted by the sea for decades is more uneven in texture and usually has tell-tale 'c' shapes etched into it by natural weathering.

artificially tumbled seaglass ie. Fake seaglass

This piece was given to me by wonderful lady in the US. It was sold to her as 'tumbled glass', which is exactly what it is; smoothed artificially in an electric tumbler. It is smooth and even the whole way round and if you were to study it beside a piece of seaglass from the shore you would see with the naked eye and also feel the difference. Because of its rarity, cobalt glass is one of the more frequently shades of seaglass to be tumbled artificially. 

I found this medium sized piece recently when out beach combing with fellow Etsy friends. The shade is somewhere between paler cobalt or sapphire and darker cornflower blue. It is frosted through, but is still a little smooth so perhaps it is only a few decades old. I haven't captured the natural frosting very well on camera, but I can still feel and see the difference between this piece and the fake one above. 

natural cobalt seaglass from Ireland

This is a really stunning piece of cobalt glass I picked up the same day. The ridges will make it fun to wrap. The natural frosting is very clear. It must be quite old. Sealgass this frosted can be 100 years old or more.

I recently sold this pendant made with pale blue seaglass. The glass possibly came from a very old 'clear' glass artefact that is so thick it appears aqua blue. Minerals in the sand used to make the glass can cause colourful effects. Iron, for example, gives a greeny-blue  or 'seafoam' hue to glass.

rare shades of blue seaglass found in Dublin

These three beauties were really special finds. The one on the left is a very rare shade of petrol blue. The back is only mildly frosted but it is still, technically frosted through. It just hasn't been in the sea quite as long as the others. 

The one in the middle is a gorgeous shade of cornflower, also quite rare, especially in these parts. It's a little small, but I will still be able to wrap it. It just might take a little clever wire work to show off its beauty.  

Rare seaglass piece with faint letters DUBL

The piece on the right is a very popular shade of aqua blue that I also found a couple of weeks ago. I only discovered after taking this shot, that the underside has almost invisible letters on it. I thought at first it was a number but moving it around the shade, as opposed to the light, I can make out ''DUBL' - from the word DUBLIN I guess!  It is really hard to see, as if it were invisible ink on paper, so I almost missed it entirely. It is like a secret code, that I have had difficulty capturing on camera. I had to sharpen up the image and play around with contrast to get it on film. Elusive as the letters are, this is a very exciting find indeed!

I am still cleaning, studying and photographing the beach-worn pottery and seaglass from my recent trip to the shore and will share more pieces of interest as I get to them.

seaglass bookmark

I will of course be wrapping many of the pieces into jewelry, bookmarks and keyrings so watch my Etsy shop for these!

To learn how to clean seaglass and beach-worn pottery click here

To read about shades of green seaglass click here

To purchase seaglass jewelry and accessories click here