Sea glass jewelry sneak peak

Let's take a sneaky look at the sea glass jewelry I've been wire wrapping this week. Focusing on the details in the design, here is a wee glimpse of things to come...

That's all I can show you for now until the pendants are listed! In the meantime, if you like what you see you can click here to view Irish sea glass jewelry already available in my Etsy shop.

Treasury Time

My blog has been sadly neglected over the winter as I commenced a part time course in December. Ironically, it's a diploma in journalism.  This pretty treasury landed in my Etsy shop inbox last night and kick started me into blogging again.

Treasuries are showcase lists of Etsy goodies put together by fellow members. They are an art form in themselves. This week I am thankful to be included in a stunning list of handmade and vintage goods in joyful, Spring shades curated by Elena of Four Seasons Creations.

Thanks to Elena for including my Irish sea glass pendant in dark forest green in this beautiful collection titled 'Joy.' Here is the pendant up close:

Ocean Moon sea glass pendant

To learn a little more about varieties of green sea glass click HERE

Beach Combing in Jersey, Channel Islands

Late August, I spent a week in Jersey, one of the UK Channel Islands, off the North coast of France and a place I've always wanted to visit. It's a popular destination for walking holidays with stunning cliff paths in the North, easier coastal walks along the entire perimeter and green, country lanes in the interior. Its many beaches also throw up a  fair share of sea glass and sea pottery to delight collectors of beach treasures like me.

beach treasure found in Jersey, UK

Although I had insider information that I was staying near an excellent strand for beach combing, Green Island Beach in the South, I'm afraid I didn't find all that much. Then again I was too busy sightseeing to spend enough time actually searching. The photo above shows the best of the crop. The photo isn't great, but the triangle of glass in the middle is a beautiful shade of baby blue, one of the rarer shades. 

This brown scenic shard of sea pottery was a cool find, despite the extra wear and tear at the edge. I wonder if anyone recognises the pattern?

Some day I will  have to go back and search for more treasure.....

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You might like:

How to Clean Sea Glass
How to Care for Sea Glass Jewellery
Sea glass items from my Etsy Store

Irish Blessing

“May you always walk in sunshine. May you never want for more. May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door.” - Irish Blessing

Irish angel made with sea glass, silver plate and a crystal bead.

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

G is for Glass & Green, ABC of Jewellery

As we continue with the ABC of Jewellery, we've reached part 2 of the letter G. This is a not-too comprehensive guide to jewellery techniques and materials I use as well as design styles and inspirations. A few days ago I posted about Gemstones, including Garnets. Part 2 looks at Glass and the colour Green.

Glass in its many forms is very popular in jewellery. I don't use every type of glass bead available so I'm going to concentrate on those I do; sea glass, crystals, Czech glass, ceramic and seed beads. 

      

White sea glass angel ornament     Wire wrapped sea glass pendant

My favourite is sea glass.That is glass that has been naturally smoothed and frosted over a long period of time while tumbling in the ocean. The salt water leeches minerals, notably sodium and potassium, from the glass. This gives it a semi opaque and icy appearance. 

Spot the difference? With a tiny bit of practice, you can spot a fake that has been artificially tumbled as it will be very smooth and evenly frosted. The piece on the right is naturally frosted by the ocean. The difference is clear....or not!

Irish sea glass pendant (sold)

Genuine sea glass will have c-shaped dimples or pitting in the frosting and/or a crusty appearance. The more obvious the pitting, the longer the piece has been in the water. A heavily frosted piece could have been rolling in the sea for as much as 100 years.

'club sauce' sea glass bottle stoppers

Half the fun of working with sea glass is collecting it on the beach. The best time to find sea treasure is after a storm. It can be back breaking but it's worth it when you spot a real beauty like these bottle stoppers. To learn how to clean sea glass and sea pottery CLICK HERE

   

                                      Swarovski revoli crystal          Swarovski emerald
                                                                                   (with Connemara marble)

Rhinestones and crystals are also a type of glass. I don't work with the former, but do occasionally like to use European crystal. Crystal are a high quality of glass that give off a beautiful sparkle. Swarovski crystals from Austria are a superior brand famous for their quality and uniformity of size. You may see them described as having AB shine. This stands for aurora borealis, a type of highly reflective, sheen finish. The Swarovksi revoli cyrstals seen above have a rainbow-like effect.

 

Czech crystal  earrings, with smaller topaz gemstone beads

Czech crystal beads are also considered of good quality and can look like gemstones. The blue  Czech crystals in 'Yours Truly' earrings look very similar in structure to the tiny topaz gemstones and reflect the light even better than the little stones do.

Ceramic & faceted glass bracelet       Pink crystal fairy                       

 

Ceramic and Czech crystal heart        Blue Czech glass butterfly fairy

I  very occasionally use other forms of glass beads including ceramic and faceted Czech glass, which is not as sparkly as crystal but still reflects the light. Glass in any form can lend lightness and colour to any piece of jewellery.

blue and rust seed bead eyeglass chain 

Glass seed beads are tiny, usually 2mm to 4mm and are great fun though a little pesky to bead with. I use them as spacers between gemstones, but as they are available in a vast array of shades you can use them for all sorts of beading projects, including embroidery. Tiny glass seed beads are often easier to string, wire up or sew than tiny stones as the hole is usually a tad wider and more uniform. That reminds me G is also for Glasses and you can hold on to yours with a beaded eyeglass chain like this one!

close up of Connemara marble

Green is a colour that is usually abundant in my shop because I use a lot of Irish Connemara marble.  I've written a few previous posts about this rare, indigenous stone:
About Connemara Marble
Bright Connemara Marble
Up Close and Personal with Connemara Marble

Connemara marble samples

This increasingly scarce marble really does come in 40 shades of green, usually with several tones in the same small piece.

The green serpentine streaks in the limestone marble are caused by the presence of various minerals.

some varieties of green sea glass

Sea glass also comes in several shades of green. I will leave the letter G here and refer to a  previous post on the various shades found and their frequency of occurance: Shades of Green Sea Glass.

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A  B  C  (plus C for Crimping ) D E F  (plus F for Findings) G, 1

Summer Jewellery, Feeling Nautical

Spurred on by the unusual Summer weather we've been enjoying here in Ireland, I've been busy making sea and beach inspired jewelry.

blue agate slab pendant, Deep Waters

Deep Waters pendant was made from a stunning, cobalt agate slab. The wire is solid sterling silver. The swirl represents a rolling wave or an eddy in the water.

denim blue pendant, Sun & Sea

Catering to all budgets, 'Sun & Sea' is an affordable denim blue, colour-enhanced jasper stone pendant. I wire wrapped this one in silver plate. 

seafoam sea glass pendant, Seascape

Seascape pendant is a greener blue known as seafoam, a shade similar to aquamarines. I found this perfectly frosted sea glass on a Dublin shore. It must have been rolling about in the Irish sea for decades. Again, this pendant is wrapped securely in silver plated wire.

All three pendants above are available with or without the cotton crochet chains. 

Here is a selection of other ocean-inspired (or ocean-given!) jewelry from my Etsy store:

 

Fresh Greens. Connemara Marble and Irish Sea Glass

Handmade by Amo'r Etsy store recently got a fresh injection of green as it was running low on Connemara marble  and other lush verdes.

rare, Connemara marble pendant

Found only in the West of Ireland, Connemara marble is unique to our island. This ancient stone is over 600,000,000 years old and comes in a wide range of greens from the palest whitewash, through the limes, grasses and sages to the darkest forest green. Often, you will  find several shades in the marbling, even on the smallest specimen. To read a fuller article I previously wrote on this native, Irish stone click HERE

  

This is a rare piece of Connemara marble cut into a coin shape. It reminded me of my photo, taken in Lough Dan, Wicklow. So when looking for a matching round bead, I carefully selected one with brown veining to gently represent the distant mountains. Naturally, I had to name the finished pendant  'Wicklow'. 

kelly green, Irish  sea glass pendant

Bringing in a more intense, kelly green, I also recently listed the above sea glass pendant wrapped in silver wire. Sea glass usually changes in colour intensity according the light source so it can be a bit chameleon-like.

 'Ocean Jewel' is made from genuine sea glass found on a Dublin shore. It is fully frosted so must have been tumbling in the water for a few decades at least. It is part of  a bottle neck. I wonder was it beer or wine?  If it came from a beer bottle, then it is quite possibly, close to 100 years old. 

(Borrowing from my own previous post about sea glass bottle necks) '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 at that. However, if this were a modern piece of sea glass it would be smoother, with very little of the tell-tale, crystalline frosting that occurs only after decades in the sea.'

The genuine 'crusty' frosting appears only after a long period of time exposed to the ocean water. It leeches the soda and lime creating the more opaque appearance. While smooth frosting can be faked in a tumbler, the 'C' shaped pitting in the surface cannot. Whether this rim was from a beer or wine bottle it has been in the sea for an extended period. 

  

I'm  slowly replenishing my stock of Connemara marble earrings. I try to have a few different styles in my Etsy shop at any given time. 

And coming soon, something a little bit different....

Connemara marble star earrings