An interesting phenomenon in the sea glass collecting world is the takeover by the National Park Service of coastal locations that were once town dumps. These areas provide some of the best sea glass collecting as they offer copious amounts in a myriad of colors and shapes to hunters who are willing to trek the many miles for the enjoyment of collecting.
Once the National Park Service takes over an area the collector is no longer allowed to keep the sea glass they find. Visitors are told that the sea glass, once trash, is now "a natural resource" and belongs to everybody. This just oozes with irony, doesn't it?
I understand from the Park's point of view the desire to retain the sea glass as it increases tourism to an area ( i.e. $$$ ). If people are allowed to keep the naturally tumbled gems eventually there will be nothing left and the tourists will disappear.
It will be interesting to see if collectors will still be willing to spend the time and money to travel to these locations if they can't keep the sea glass they find. It may be that the Naional Park Service's position is in a Catch 22.
Two National Park locations that I have visited are
Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, Ca and
Spectacle Island, Boston, MA. Click on the hyperlinks to see more about these areas.
Young acoustic artist Shannon Vogt has posted her name album titled Seaglass. The CD inlcudes six songs with a folksy rock sound. Her voice reminds me of Dolores O'Riordan from the Irish rock band The Cranberries.
For years they lived near Southern California beaches beachcombing for sea glass and shells. Now they're landlocked, living part time in Arizona and New Mexico. Sea glassing vacations are high on their agenda! theis Glass Beach mosaic was made after a trip to Glass Beach, Ft. Bragg, California. It was an incredible sight and experience, and I wanted to create a bit of the beach for myself to enjoy at home. I used glass, abalone pieces, and pebbles from there, mixed with some stained glass.
This month's featured sea glass specimen is the remnant of the top of an old case gin bottle. Case gins, also known as taper gins, are some of the earliest forms of liquor bottles, dating from at least the mid 17th century up through the early 20th century.
