White sea glass - ray of sunshine

I found this unusual piece of sea glass on a Dublin shore a couple of years ago. The lines fan out like rays of sunshine. At a guess, it comes from the bottom of a vase or bowl. It reminds me of a Dublin Crystal fruit bowl my mother won for fish cookery or some such thing when I was a teenager.

I confess I was a little scared to wire wrap such an interesting piece lest I spoil the radiating lines and so I did nothing but admire it until now. 

Then out of nowhere I lost my fear and got the urge to do this with it in silver wire. I had the swirl of the ocean in mind when wire wrapping it. 

 

Sunbeam sea glass pendant on cotton chain

Yes, I had to wrap over the rays but you can see the shape of the lines through the wire, just like rays of sunshine penetrating deep waters. It works. Sometimes you just have to go for it.

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.

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