Beach glass

For the past ten days we've been house-sitting for friends who live at the beach at Three Tree Point. And every day we've walked the beach, rain or shine. I envy anyone who has access to a salt water beach, anytime they want. I grew up spending all my vacations along the Oregon and Washington coast, walking the beach every day, running in and out of the surf, staring at the sand, hoping to find the perfect agate. Walking for miles.

Driftwood, agates, bright red jasper stones, and speckled egg-shaped stones... they all found their way into my collecting bag, and into the Pilot to take home. But I had the most fun looking for beach glass. I love the stuff, always have. Every day I walked the beach at least twice, once alone, once with Brodi. He'd run endlessly, and I'd look for treasures.

The most common glass has been clear; no surprise. But I've found just about as much green. Just picture 7-up bottles and Mickey Big Mouth beer bottles, and you'll know the exact color. The brown is hard to spot; it seems to blend in with sand and stones more than the other colors. The blue glass is so gorgeous, from a deep, beautiful cobalt to light blue. My favorite is the red, and I only found a few pieces. I also found two colors I've never seen before: orange, and pink, and a handful of marbles. But I think my favorite piece is what I think was a swizzle stick, with the knobby end intact.

In all I scored about five pounds of glass, all sorted into separate bags by color. My original idea was to find big pieces to use for polishing driftwood... that's another blog. But I also started collecting the small bits, and I'm thinking about other projects. Maybe I'll make framed stained-glass type mosaics, and frame them to hang in our cabin windows to catch the light. Or maybe combine twisted bits of polished driftwood and beach glass and make wind chimes. Or...

If you have any ideas for art projects using beach glass, I'd love to hear them.