On May 27, 2011, we drove up to Fort Bragg, California for our second sea glass festival at Captain Cass's Sea Glass Museum - http://glassbeachjewelry.com/ It is a long drive from Palm Springs as Fort Bragg is several hours past San Francisco. We finally got to our motel and unloaded, then hit the beach. The coastline in Fort Bragg is strewn with cliffs and rocks. There is one sandy beach near where we go, but the best glass beaches are the ones you climb down the rocks to the beach below. One of the very best glass beaches is accessible by climbing, but it is off limits and posted with no trespassing signs. I really wanted to go there, but with my luck I would have been ticketed so we kept to the other sites. We picked up glass for about an hour then headed back to the motel. It'd been a long day and we were starved. The first night we ate at a wonderful restaurant called Chapter & Moon. It is a small place with a tiny staff and you have a view of the harbor. The food is to die for - homemade breads, grilled salmon, fresh seafood and huge garden fresh salads - located at 32150 N. Harbor Dr. (S. Main St.)Fort Bragg, CA 95437.
At the restaurant, we started talking to a couple next to our table, telling them about the next day's sea glass festival. And we asked the restaurant owner if they'd heard of the festival. No one had heard or seen anything about the festival which wasn't a good sign. We'd asked earlier at the motel if they knew about the festival and they hadn't heard of it either. Yikes, no advertising. We knew the town was full of weekenders - all the hotels and motels were full, but would anyone come? We went off to bed hoping the weather would be nice in the morning and the festival would draw a crowd.
The next day, we arrived at the museum grounds and Captain Cass told us we'd be one of six vendors. He also told us he was putting up a sign which could be seen from the highway. Hmmm. Was that it for the advertising? Well, we didn't have time to worry as we had to set up our tent and put out our displays.
As you can see from the picture, the day started out nice - blue skies and sun. More about weather in a bit. Here are some pictures of the tents of the other vendors -
This is a shot of Tammy Sue Davis. You can find her on the web at tammy@mendocoasttreasures.com Tammy lives in Fort Bragg and she finds the most wonderful glass. She is an artisan who creates sea glass jewelry and accessories. I love her dog collars with sea glass.
Next to Tammy's tent was a vendor named Victoria Roberts, who does custom designs, repairs and instruction. She makes the most beautiful crocheted bracelets with wire and delicate sea glass earrings. You can find her on the web at http://vroberts1017.etsy.com/ You can just see Victoria on the stool in the blue sweatshirt. The husbands were standing around chatting about the weather or whatever.
The end booth belonged to Don the Beachcomber and Surfer Joan. Both fun people and great artisans. They live in Santa Cruz and you can find their jewelry in shops there and at the famous Santa Cruz sea glass festival. Don does a lot of bevel work with sea glass and silver. Joan makes the loveliest sea glass rings in silver. On our last morning in Fort Bragg, Joan and I sat on the beach talking and picking up sea glass - it was fun.
I don't know what happened, but I didn't get a picture of Wendy Craig, another vendor who came all the way from New Jersey for the show. She had made incredible necklaces with marbles she'd found at the beach back east. Really delightful work. You can see her work at http://www.2ndtimeglass.com/ - really worth a look.
I also didn't get a picture of the couple next to us - Pete and Kim of Sea Glass Essentials. We'd met them at another sea glass festival and they are the nicest people as well as being great artisans. Take a look at their work at info@seaglassessentials.com
We all got set up and a few customers started arriving as did the rain. Luckily, we all had tents and could keep semi dry. And we certainly appreciated the customers who came and braved the rain. We made a few sales, but by noon, everyone was packing up and leaving. Wendy from New Jersey decided to stick it out and so did Capt. Cass, but he was inside a nice warm building. My feet were wet and I was getting cold, so we packed up our jewelry and headed to the motel. We had just finished lunch when I saw that the sun had come back out. So Steve and I decided we should go back to our tent and set up again - which we did and stayed open until 5 pm. I don't think we made another sale, but we felt good about trying - which meant being there.
That night we went to Silvers at the Wharf. A large commercial restaurant down by the harbor. Good food with a full bar which is what you need after a day of rain - stops and starts.
Sunday started off with overcast skies. Gray clouds and a slight wind. I prayed it wouldn't rain. I should have prayed the wind didn't pick up which it did in the afternoon. It got so windy by late afternoon that Tammy's tent was blowing over as was Wendy's. Our earrings on cards were flying off the displays. Again, the others left, but we stuck it out with Wendy from New Jersey. Finally, the wind got so bad and it was late, we packed up. Captain Cass said we could come and sell again on Monday which was the holiday, but we were done. We went down to the beach again and braved the wind, but I was all bundled up and ready for a typhoon. Dinner was at Chapter & Moon again as we both love the food there. Monday morning, hit the beach again where I ran into Joan and we chatted as we picked up sea glass. She was looking for a marble for me as I've never found one. She didn't find one and to this day, I still haven't found a marble at the beach. Here are a few shots of some of the sea glass and pottery pieces I did find -
As you can see brown sea glass is very common and plentiful as is white.
Driving back to Palm Springs seemed like a long haul to do in one day, like our trip up to Fort Bragg, so we stopped way down the coast at Shell Beach which is next to Pismo beach and only 2 hours from Los Angeles. And of course, once we found a motel, we had to run right down to the beach. Here are a couple of shots of Shell Beach, another beach you have to hike down too the sand.
There were no shells or sea glass on Shell Beach. Maybe it was the wrong time of year? 
We had a lot of fun on our sea glass festival weekend - ate some good food, made new friends and sold some of our sea glass jewelry. Here is a shot of one of our new designs to look at until I get back to blogging about our next adventure. (Sea glass from Fort Bragg - sterling wire and sterling mermaid charm)
Find us at http://sistersjewelrydesign.etsy.com/
Ooh, that sounds amazing! Except for the wind!
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