Sea Glass From The Past

Introduction

In February this year, my great Vocal friend Les produced a wonderful deserved Top Story that referred to Sea Glass, which you can read about here.

On my annual visit to La Rosa in Whitby, I was wandering around Silver Street and noticed a sign for a shop advertising Sea Glass From the Past, so obviously my interest was piqued.

I didn't really know much about sea glass and my only exposure to it was Les's story, so I went to investigate the shop.

Sea glass are naturally weathered pieces of glass, which often have the appearance of tumbled stones

I found the shop and they are on Facebook here.

The shop front is very interesting and the main artist is Eve although when I went into the shop I spoke with Eve's mother, Penny who was sorting through lots of sea glass which would eventually become jewellery in the form of necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

Penny told me that many people ask why the finished articles are so expensive (they're not) because they are "just stuff found on beaches", but there is a lot of work that goes into creating these amazingly beautiful pieces.

Check out the Facebook page for images and videos of these exquisite creations, but I will include a few of my images of Eve's creations that I saw in the shop.

This is a poem inspired by Eve and Penny's work

This was Penny holding one of her painted rocks featuring a bat flying over Whitby Abbey. Penny paints and Eve creates the jewelry and sea glass things. They are two amazing artists.

As you can see, before anything can be created, the sea glass must be sorted and gathered so that the colours are complementary, as well as ensuring that the size of the sea glass pieces is appropriate for whatever is going to be created.

I did help put some sea glass back into the appropriate container when Peny showed me how they prepared things, ready for Eve to make her amazing creations.

I did tell Fiona about the shop and she immediately went and visited, and purchased earrings and a ring.

Eve was away at a local craft fair, but the shop is an amazing place to see her work, and there is much that you could be very tempted to buy.

Here is a family of Owls painted onto rock and below is a cornucopia of Eve's Rock Creations.

Pirate Glass

Pirate Glass looks as though it has been in a fire, but when I light is shined through it, it glows, usually amber but sometimes green and red, as well as other colours.

This is thought to be from bottles from shipwrecks possibly dating back to Roman times, and Penny demonstrated this in the shop to me, so this was another interesting property of a particular type of sea glass.

Conclusion

As sea glass is created by being chemically weathered close to saltwater on beaches I thought that "La Mer" by Claude Debussy was an appropriate musical accompaniment to this piece.

I have been absolutely fascinated by the phenomenon of sea glad, and the way in which Eve crafts it into so many beautiful items.

The thing is Eve can create any design that you might want, given that the correct raw materials are there for her to create it for you.

I know that this has been just a couple of interludes in the shop with Penny enjoying some beautiful items, but I found it enjoyable and interesting seeing something that was almost a fiction for Les's wonderful story being crafted into some incredibly beautiful items.

Please visit the Facebook page and leave some comments, you may be quite amazed at what you find, I certainly was, and I saw it for real.