Sea glass
Sea glass , and beach glass , beach shards or sea glass called called glass shards , in the sea or in the surf zone or at the beach through many decades of contact with sea water , sand and stones weather . Above all, the sharp edges of the shards are ground round and the previously mostly shiny surface of the glass is satined . For the best result from the collector's point of view, the process usually takes at least 20 to 30 years.
Origin, occurrence, use
Sea glass is mostly made from glass products that have been disposed of as garbage in the sea. Sea glass is therefore often found near major shipping routes or on beaches that were used as landfills in the past . Since a very large part of the sea glass is made from discarded beer or water bottles, the colors green, brown and white predominate. Other colors such as orange, red, blue or black are far less common.
The best-known sites are the large area covered with sea glass Glass Beach near Fort Bragg in California and the beach of the same name on Kaua'i . In Germany, sea glass can be found on Heligoland or west of Warnemünde , among other places .
Sea glass is a popular collector's item . If the shard has marks, the collector may be able to draw conclusions about the place and time of manufacture of the glass. Such a mark can for example be the glass mark of the glassworks on a bottle.
Sometimes the sea glass is also processed into jewelry or art objects. It's getting harder and harder to find, as stricter environmental regulations in most countries no longer open landfills in or near the sea. PET is also replacing glass as a material for bottles. The demand for sea glass arouses the appetites of counterfeiters , the glass shards as tumbled stones processed by machining with abrasives in a rotating drum and then offer them for sale.
literature
- Ann-Christin Wimber: Meerglas - search, find, determine . 2014, ISBN 978-3-00044-662-7 .
- Richard Lamotte: Pure Sea Glass: Discovering Nature's Vanishing Gems . Sea Glass Pub Llc, 2004, ISBN 978-0-97532-460-8 .
Web links
- Meerglas.info - Beach shards found on the North and Baltic Seas
- North American Sea Glass Association (English)
- Ina Frings: Meerglas (November 25, 2015)
Individual evidence
- ^ The Godfather of Sea Glass . In: Sea Glass Journal, accessed January 14, 2018
- ↑ Elizabeth Park: Where Does Beach Glass Come From? In: USA Today , accessed January 14, 2018
- ↑ a b c d e What is Sea Glass? . In: findseaglass.net, accessed January 14, 2018
- ↑ Katja Bülow: Meerglas - Beach treasures with a story . In: Ostsee-Zeitung of July 21, 2017