Sea Glass Transformed

I thought I would share some more images of sea glass that has been transformed into pendants. Some more successfully than others, but that is the nature of working with found objects.

I have now received sea glass collected from three locations.

Mercia sea glass sent to me by juliet http://julietdoyle.blogspot.com/ . I featured some of her collected pieces a few posts back. These I have to say show classic style of wirewrapping.

Isle of Wight sea glass sent to me by 'Melton Mowbray' a frequent contributor to litblogs. A wonderful haul of Isle of Wight sea glass awaits transformation. So I decided to try a glass cab technique of gluing a silverplated bail to these.

Lowestoft sea glass was collected by a friend and her 10 year old daughter during a visit to a relative. The collection time took nearly 4 hours and there was only 4 pieces found. I tried a variety of techniques to transform these into pendants.

I suspect of the three locations the Isle of Wight is the motherlode for sea glass. Not surprising given the amount of sea traffic that must pass and the currents. Lowestoft is relatively poor pickings and one of the pieces is definitely nouveau Stella.

Anyway, here is a discription of techniques I used to transform these pieces of sea glass.

Lowestoft - (Right to left) The lovely smooth blue fat flat egg shaped pebble I struggled with trying to set in sterling silver. In the end I decided a very simple method of creating a sterling silver wire spiral cage was best. I used square profile wire. This little pendant has been adopted already.

Next is the 'Stella Tear Drop'. Again I hoped to set this one in a sterling bezel but the curve of the glass just wasn't conducive to this so a bit of a free form wirewrap session with both square profile and round profile sterling wire took place. Now I have to admit, I did grind the edges down a bit to bring the shape into focus. Normally I would not have considered the raw piece worth wrapping but as my friend had collected it and she was looking for a special present for someone I went the extra distance with all her pieces.

Last of the Lowestoft sea glass is a pebble shaped which did finally get set (after a fashion) in sterling silver bezel wire and square wire. It was a struggle and I had to resort to glue to hold it so I could push the sterling band close to the glass. This little piece of glass demonstrates something else I learned about sea glass on one of those wild net forays one gets into whilst tracking down other things. Sea glass is classed by some as a mineral. Obviously, the glass has to have been weathered for quite some time (decades) to achieve this. Elements leach out of the glass and other elements attach themselves. This little pebble is a slightly funny colour. You can see it a bit better in the third image.

Isle of Wight Sea Glass - technique is fairly straightforward. Use epoxy 2 part glue (I use Scotchweld).

The first piece is a fairly sharp dart. I needed to make sure that the bail would touch all of the glass surface. As you can see the bail shows through the glass. Also interesting is the scotchweld has been discoloured - possibly by a reaction with the glass surface. So not a great piece. I'm wondering whether I can boil off the bail. I can do this with fused glass cabs and some strong stones but sea glass is slightly porous which could result in it shattering.

The second piece is more successful due to its thickness. I love the 'foot' that has been created by the action of the sea. It has a 'megalith' feel to it.

Of course the rear view is much nicer in some ways. Maybe I can start a trend!

What will become of these transformed pieces?

I've been giving this some thought and I think I will be offering these initially in Rackenford Village Shop. No guarantee they will sell but if they do the shop will get a fifth to help support the continued existence in the village. I'm going to create a gallery of the Rackenford Range on my main website so that people can see what is available in the shop. Hopefully, some people will make the effort to visit and take a look.

Present Efforts

I'm currently making up some kilt pins and other gifts. I thought it might be a nice subject for a tutorial. It has been a struggle to remember to take pictures at appropriate times and to have enough sunlight to take decent photos.

So next time - a tutorial on making pins and other beaded accessories / gifts. (Note to self: must remember to show how to do a wrapped loop!)