Sea Glass and Beach Glass

Sea Glass and Beach Glass are similar but come from different types of waters. "Sea glass" is physically and chemically weathered glass found on beaches along bodies of salt water. These weathering processes produce natural frosted glass. 

 "Beach glass" comes from fresh water and in most cases has a different pH balance and a less frosted appearance than sea glass

 "Sea glass" takes as much as 100 to 200 years to acquire its characteristic texture and shape.It is also colloquially referred to as "drift glass" from the longshore drift process that forms the smooth edges. 

Sea glass begins as normal shards of broken glass that are then persistently tumbled and ground until the sharp edges are smoothed and rounded. In this process, the glass loses its slick surface but gains a frosted appearance over many years. 

Naturally produced sea glass ("genuine sea glass") originates as pieces of glass from broken bottles, broken tableware, or even shipwrecks, which are rolled and tumbled in the ocean for years until all of their edges are rounded off, and the slickness of the glass has been worn to a frosted appearance

Glass from inland waterways such as the Great Lakes is known as beach glass. It is similar to sea glass, but in the absence of wave rigor and oceanic saline, content is typically less weathered. Beach glass from inland regions often has prominently embossed designs or letters on it, which can make tracing its origin less challenging. The outer surface of beach glass shards may also be texturally varied, with one side frosty and the other shiny. This is most likely because they are pieces broken off from larger glass objects which are themselves still embedded in mud, silt or clay, slowly being exposed by wave action and erosion.

The color of sea glass is determined by its original source, and most sea glass comes from bottles.

Tumbled Glass

Authentic sea and beach glass is becoming rarer and harder to find. More people are actively searching for it, and the shift to other materials such as plastic for containers has greatly reduced the number of glass containers dumped in the sea.

This scarcity has led to some artisans and crafters tumbling poorer pieces of sea glass shards to create what is called "twice-tossed" or "tumbled"  glass, while others create artificial sea glass, or "craft glass", from ordinary glass pieces using a rock tumbler. While such glass is chunkier than most true sea glass, lacks its romantic provenance, and differs in many technical ways (e.g., long-term exposure to water conditions creates an etched surface on the glass that cannot be duplicated artificially),

ALL SEA GLASS AND BEACH GLASS USED IN MY ART IS ORIGINAL SEA AND BEACH GLASS HAND PICKED FROM BEACHES ACROSS NORTH, CENTER  AND SOUTH AMERICA.