Cayucos Sea Glass Festival

One week ago today, on Friday, we left Palm Springs and headed up north to Cayucos to a sea glass festival. We stopped in Solvang to leave Dylan at my sister Julia's house. Needless to say, Dylan wasn't happy. It was another two hour drive to Cayucos which is just north of Morro Bay. It was a gorgeous day and I loved looking out the window at the ocean.. I wanted to stop at all the beaches and look for sea glass, but we were on a deadline as the Festival organizers were having a 5 o'clock appetizer mixer for all the sea glass vendors.



Finally, we reached Cayucos, a sleepy beach town. Checked into an old beach motel and I mean old. The motel is called Estero Bay Motel.











Luckily for us, the motel was really clean and the shower was hot - two important ingredients in a cheap hotel. There are other nicer and more expensive hotels in Cayucos like this one we saw later from the beach. But hey, we were in Cayucos to sell our jewelry, make some money not spend it all on sleeping. I do recommend the Estero Bay Motel because it was inexpensive at $152 for two nights including tax.
After registering at the motel, we headed for the beach to stretch our legs and yes, look for some beach glass. Cayucos beach is a long wide spread of beach with rocks jutting up out of the water and houses overlooking the sand. Here are some pictures.

Looking toward the old pier, we could see the Veteran's Hall - the site of the sea glass Festival. We had an hour before the mixer, so we headed over to the hall to set up some of our displays.

















A lovely sculpture of two dolphins stands outside the hall. The tables and table cloths were provided and vendors supplied their own displays for the tables.

I think there were twenty- three vendors selling sea glass jewelry, sea glass books, mosaics, wind chimes etc. - all things sea glass. We got our stands up quickly and it still wasn't time for the mixer, so we walked down the block and where I thought we could buy coffees. We passed a historic house which was quite pretty. I think it is now a bed and breakfast, but not sure. I did see a restaurant dinner menu on a sign. Anyway, past the old house was a cookie factory called Brown Butter Cookie Company, started by two sisters, just like our company of Sisters Jewelry Design, where they sell the most delicious cookies. Their signature cookie is a brown butter cookie sprinkled with sea salt and it is to die for (later we found some in our vendor gift bags from the festival organizers.) You can order these cookies on their website at http://www.brownbuttercookies.com/

We went back to the Veteran's Hall for the mixer and had some great appetizers and talked with fellow sea glass vendors. It was fun. Then it was off to crash at the motel. I get nervous about sale day so I went to bed early and woke up every two hours all night long afraid the alarm won't work. I usually set the alarm and Steve's phone so it's not like one won't work, but nerves set in anyway. Up and dressed by seven, we drove the one street town and found a little coffee shop. Got two lattes and some scones and headed off to finish setting up the jewelry.

In this first shot, you can see our friends Gary and Kira setting up their tables next to us. Gary is a silversmith and his work is just amazing. You can see his sea glass jewelry at their website http://www.theglasscrafter.com/ Take a look, his work is beautiful and unique. Kira, is a graphic artist and she has recently designed sea glass puzzles as well as a sea glass calendar. So check out their website.

Gary and Kira - hamming it up for the camera.

Another shot of the set up. We had an L shaped table near the front of the hall. The doors opened at 10 and the crowd rushed in. The sea glass festival was so successful that people waited in line outside for 45 minutes just to get in. The last customer came through the doors at 4:00. We were so busy, we didn't even have time for lunch which was great. We sold sea glass jewelry like crazy and met a lot of nice people.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get shots of the other vendors or their cards - we were so busy. But I do want to mention Krista Hammond - her work is absolutely great and can be seen on her website at http://santacruzseaglass.com/ Krista is also the creator and driving force behind the sea glass festival in Santa Cruz. Go to her website, you'll love it. We did the Santa Cruz festival last November and had a great time. In fact, it was at the Santa Cruz festival that we met Kiki, Catherine Kornreich, who was involved in setting up the Cayucos Sea Glass festival. This was the first Cayucos Sea Glass Festival and Kiki was one of the main people behind the festival.

On the left is Sandy, then Laila Kollmann, another main creator of the festival and Kiki, Catherine Kornreich. These women and others did an amazing job of creating a great event for sea glass sellers and sea glass lovers alike. And yes, according to Kiki, there will be another Cayucos Sea Glass Festival, so if you missed this one, you can come next year.

When the festival was over, we packed up, said our good byes and went out to dinner with our friends. It was a successful weekend and a fun one too. And as always, our favorite part of any sea glass festival, is when we have time to walk the beach. See our sea glass jewelry on Etsy at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/