Welcome to my sea glass circle!
4 years ago, I started collecting sea glass on Prince Edward Island, Canada where I was born and raised. Though I live in Wisconsin, I would often visit my 97 year old mother who lives on PEI across from the beach. For relaxation, I would walk the beach and I had to stop occasionally to pick up beautiful pieces of sea glass, completely smooth and with a frosted patina. These pieces were discarded items from the past, bottles and dishware that had been thrown out years ago into dumps or from shipwrecks and after many years of allowing nature to take its course, they were naturally tumbled into these beautiful shapes and sizes.
My brothers had told me about the sea glass they were discovering and had shown me their prized possessions. I was instantly addicted! What a beautiful pastime: walking on the beach, hearing the waves, feeling the salty air and wind on my face, while running my hands through sand and gravel to find sea glass in all the colors of the rainbow: cobalt blue, cornflower blue, kelly green, amber, white, and occasionally red, yellow, turquoise, aqua and teal.
I was quickly filling buckets, bags and totes and carrying them back home to Wisconsin. What to do? I had a large collection and I wanted to share it with others. I had witnessed other artist's works and decided I should try creating too. So after a workshop or two, and the advice of a sister-in-law, I started using my creative instincts. It didn't take long before I had many ideas and each one seem to evolve to a new one. My husband, in the meantime, was learning how to drill my sea glass, which provided me with many more ways to use my sea glass. Now I had an abundance of sea glass pendants, sea glass dangly earrings, sea glass post earrings, sea glass rings, sea glass bracelets, sea glass whimsical necklaces.
Now needing an outlet to market my sea glass jewelry, I designed a website. This led to many retail sales, custom and wholesale orders. I also began to display my sea glass jewelry at 5 or 6 festivals and shows annually.
Luckily, I am retired, because this new adventure takes me many hours of every day. I feel richly rewarded to have found such a fascinating career in my retirement years. I love everything about my new business: collecting sea glass, designing sea glass jewelry, designing my websites and displaying my treasures at festivals and art shows.
All this happened when I decided to take the plunge and try my hand at something new and adventurous!
