Fort Bragg Sea Glass Festival - Part Two

In the last post, we left off as we were walking the path to the beach in Fort Bragg. The path forked and not knowing which path led to the famous Glass Beach we decided to go right. This path ended in a patch of pink blooming ice plant and a glorious view of the coastline. You will note the rocky landscape in the above picture. I was surprised as most of the beaches I'd been to were easily accessible.
There was nothing to do but hike on down to the beach.

Here I am looking a bit unsure of the climb. But it turned out to be a gentle hike down through sand and rocks to the beach.

I don't know what I'm thinking here, except that my husband can stop taking my picture so I can look for sea glass. It was a negative tide so I started off toward the water. Almost immediately, I found sea glass. I was in heaven. It seemed that everywhere I looked there was sea glass. Most of the glass was tiny, but I didn't care. I lost track of time, as I looked for pieces of glass. There was a lot of white, green and brown glass which is natural as they are the most common colors. What was unusual about Fort Bragg sea glass as compared to Mazatlan sea glass is that Bragg's glass is much thicker and I'd guess older. The texture and frosting was delightful. As I moved closer to the water I found larger deposits of sea glass. As you can see in the next picture the glass was as thick as gravel on a road. Later, when I talked to Captain Cass, who owns the Sea Glass Museum, I'd learn that I wasn't even on Glass Beach - I was north of Glass Beach because I'd gone right instead of straight on the path. Oh, well, at that moment, I didn't know any better and I was happy as a clam to do my beachcombing. Steve and I stayed on the beach for a couple of hours then we had to return to the motel where my sister Julia and her husband Gary were waiting for us. Julia and Gary had come to Fort Bragg to spend time with us all and Friday was the only day we could do things together. I wanted to stay on the beach all day, but hey, sometimes you have to be a team player, right? My other sister, Shirley, partner in Sisters Jewelry Design, had arrived the night before with her husband Pat and become suddenly ill with the stomach flu. She loves beachcombing as much as I and for her not to get out of bed, I knew she was really sick. I was hoping it would be a one day illness as this was a free day, but tomorrow we'd be selling our jewelry at the Sea Glass Festival. I had my fingers crossed that Shirley would recover.

This is a picture of Julia and Gary at a restaurant, we'd gone to the night before down at the wharf.

Anyway, we went back to the motel, checked on Shirley, she was sick, sick, sick. Pat was going for a two hour bike ride and we decided to go with Julia and Gary first to a botanical garden, then we planned on locating the sea glass museum so we'd know where to set up our tent for the festival.
At 18220 North Highway One, is the Mendocino-Coast Botanical Gardens. They are really magnificent and worth a visit if you are in the area. You can visist their website http://www.gardenbythesea.org/ to learn more about the gardens. There are incredible rhododendrums twenty feet tall and amazing sculptures by California artists. There are 46 acres of trails and gardens so you can spend a lot of time just wandering around. Here are some of the pictures we took of garden as we walked out toward to the coastline.

First view of entering the gardens. Following are all pictures taken in the botanical garden.

Julia and my husband Steve stand by one of the many garden sculptures. Here is another shot of the glass sculpture. Some amazing photos of flowers in the park taken by my sister Julia.

As we walked through the park and walked and walked, I coughed and blew my nose constantly. My headached and I wished I was back at the motel in the bed, but I hadn't seen my sister Julia in a long time and I wanted to spend time with her so I gutted it out. I must say when we reached the end of the gardens at the ocean it was well worth the walk as the view was gorgeous - inspiring to say the least.

After we left the botanical gardens we drove a few blocks south on Highway 1 and turned into the spacious driveway of the Sea Glass Gallery & Museum. The exact address of the museum is 17801 N. Hwy 1, just 11 miles south of Fort Bragg. The museum is open daily from 10 to 5 with free admission. Be sure to talk to Captain Cass who owns the museum. His website can be found at http://glassbeachjewelry.com/

Cass is a wealth of information on sea glass and the beaches surrounding Fort Bragg. You can also pick up one of Capt. Cass' Glass Beach Guides and Map. I was beginning to love maps after the fiasco in San Francisco. From Cass and his map, I learned that I'd gone to one of the newer glass beaches I should have gone straight on the path then left. Fort Bragg has three glass beaches - each site was once a dumping area for the town. The oldest site, 1906-1943, is hard to reach without a kayak. When a dump area filled up, the townspeople would move further down the coast. The second oldest site, 1943-1947, is off the Old GP Mill Site and it has a "No Trespassing warning" - people still climb down the rocks and kayak around to this site. Not me, as I don't have a wet suit and I don't kayak. You can contact Captain Cass as he offers ocean kayak tours to this site weather permitting. Then there is Slag Pile Cove, 1949-1967 and Glass Beach 1949-1967. Suddenly, I couldn't wait to get back to the beach and find the older site.

After getting the information about where to set up for the festival the next day, we headed off for lunch down at the wharf. A quick sandwich, then a stop at a bakery for cookies. At the motel, Shirley was still sick as a dog. Julia and Gary wanted to go up the coast to see the seals lying on rocks.

I wanted to go to the beach, but the tide was coming in and my head was pounding so I went to lie down. Took some aspirin, but couldn't relax, the beach was calling my name. Finally, I got up, coaxed Steve into going and stopped to get Shirley's husband Pat. We drove down, parked and walked the path to the end where land dropped off to rocky cliffs. Then we had to follow a narrow path to where we could drop down into the rocks. (the path was like a ledge of dirt over hanging a cliff!) Yikes, I was glad I was wearing tennis shoes. Finally, we made it down onto the sand - well, you really couldn't see much sand it was all sea glass. Sea glass in layers and layers. We'd hit the "mother lode." We stayed until it was dusk picking up sea glass. I found some beautiful pieces. When they finally dragged me away from the beach I thought I'd go collapse on the bed as I was still sick and coughing like a maniac, but when we got to the motel, my brother Marty was there. Marty had ridden his Harley down from Oregon to see us all. A family reunion, so of course, I stayed up and talked with my brother. We went to dinner and then all talked some more. Poor Shirley couldn't even leave the bed she was still so sick. Here's a shot of my brother Marty on the left, my husband Steve and my brother-in-law Pat. I think they were having a "happy hour." We made an early night of it as we had to set up our jewelry booth at eight in the morning at the Sea Glass Festival. Cass had told me when I'd talked to him that some of the vendors weren't coming - in fact, there would only be three of us. I went to bed worrying about the festival - would anyone come? Would we sell any jewelry? Would Shirley still be sick and not able to help me?

Find out in Part Three what happens.

Why Sea Glass Jewelry?

Why did my sister and I choose to work with sea glass in creating our jewelry? First, we love sea glass - we love the look of it, the feel of it and the collecting of it.

Authentic sea glass looks almost frosty, muted because it has been in the ocean. Some pieces look frostier than others and some even look like rocks. The longer a piece of sea glass is in the water the frostier and sometimes darker it becomes. Water leeches out the lime and soda in the original piece of glass leaving sea glass with a pitted effect on the surface and the formation of tiny crystals - the frost. The leeching or hydration process is a long, slow process which is why when hunting for sea glass you will find all sorts of glass in varying stages of hydration (some pieces of glass have been in the water longer than others.) Often, when searching for sea glass you will find it sparkling in the light like a treasure waiting to be found. In this necklace there are three small sea glass stones that come from the North Coast of England. These sea glass stones are dense in color and have been in the sea for many, many years. Note how the glass is frosty and a bit pitted and so unlike the clear piece of glass it was originally.

Fake sea glass or glass that has been made to look like sea glass usually comes from a rock tumbler. You can spot fake sea glass because of the look and feel. It is has a smooth satiny feel to the touch and it does not have the little "c" shaped patterns on the surface of the glass. Sometimes, people make fake sea glass by soaking the glass in acid and then tumbling in a rock tumbler, but it still looks different from real sea glass. No one has been able to duplicate the process glass undergoes in the ocean as it tumbles in the sand and waves over time - which makes authentic sea glass so special.
Sea glass comes in a limited palette of colors because they are pieces of glass that ususally come from broken bottles. The very common colors are - white, green, brown and they can be found on beaches throughout the world. Unique colors are green, brown, and white glass that show age in that they are thick or have patterning. A little harder to find sea glass is in the colors of sea green, cobalt blue, lavender, light aqua, amber. And even harder to find are the light blue-cornflower blue, lime green, red, orange, yellow, gray, teal, pink, aqua, opaque Glass. You might also find if you're lucky pieces of glass so unique that they truly are treasure liks pattern glass, bottle stoppers, marbles, old glass tiles. I haven't been there, but I've heard on the Northern California beaches you can find rare colors because years ago glass blowers used to throw their unwanted creations in the ocean and now those mistakes are washing up on the beaches as lovely sea glass.

Collecting sea glass is so much fun. You need a beach where shells, rocks and sea glass wash up on the shore - so you need some wave activity. How will you know if a particular beach is a good place to hunt for sea glass? Most times, you won't know until you explore the beach at low tide, but there are some sites on the web that list good beaches for collecting sea glass. There is even a couple in San Francisco that will take you to hard to reach beaches that are known for their sea glass bounty. My sister Shirley and I check out every beach we visit on the West Coast and we dream of exploring European beaches. Right now, our best finds have come from the beaches in Mazatlan, Mexico. My sister has a condo on the beach in Mazatlan so we go there a few times a year and spend hours on the beach. Here are a few shots of us and our husbands scouring the beaches for sea glass. It really is like a treasure hunt.

There is no way to look pretty or graceful while collecting sea glass. Your head is down and your bottom is in the air. You will attract people who are curious as to what you are doing - it goes with the territory. Often, we found strangers starting to search for sea glass too and then giving us their finds. (Maybe, I've hit on something here for single women looking for a mate - try searching for sea glass in a bikini on a beach where there are good looking men. Okay, not a great idea, but there are stranger ways for people to meet.) Exploring for sea glass is a great exercise - the time flies by and you don't notice that you've just spent two hours walking and walking and walking (I never feel that way at the gym). Exercise and being outdoors are just two of the side benefits of collecting sea glass. There is also an almost zen like quality that comes over you as you concentrate on finding sparkling jewels in the sand - all your worries and cares are pushed from your mind.

The uniqueness of sea glass, its beauty and its mystery captured our imagination which in turn led us to think about creating sea glass jewelry as a way of preserving our memories of the sea - the romance and the mystery. Please visit our store at etsy.com to see our unique - one of a kind sea glass creations. http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/