Sources of Sea Glass Earrings Based on Colors
Over the past ten years, sea glass collecting has gradually become popular, capturing the attention of collectors who are fascinated with beach gems. Many popular sea glass beaches have been picked over and very little, if any, sea glass remains. Sea glass is a rare gem that often comes from rivers, seas, and oceans. Although, these water bodies aren’t the only way sea glass emerge. There is also a human-made process for creating pieces of sea glass, which is used in making different types of sea glass earrings, bracelets, necklace, pendant, ring and other charms.
The formation of sea glass occurs in two ways:
1.Man-made Sea Glass
The man-made sea glass is made by first crushing old jars and bottles into smaller pieces. Then the pieces are subjected to a rock tumbler where their surfaces and edges are rubbed and smoothed. To achieve a frosted look, the pieces of glasses are dipped in an acid bath, and a replica of naturally formed sea glass is obtained.
2. Natural Sea Glass
The formation of this sea glass involves soaking of pieces of glass in salt water and crushing against hard surfaces by the waves, causing the sharp edges and rugged corners to smoothen up. Unlike the man-made sea glass, it takes some years for natural sea glass to form and this depends on the sea water environment. Rigor and strong turbulent water conditions will create glass quickly compared to mild waves with less turbulence.
The most common source of sea glass is from bottles, but it can also come from shipwrecks, ceramics, plates, jars, pottery and windows. Different sea glasses have a variety of colors, and the color shade ranges from most common to extremely rare colors.
Sea Glass Color Guide
There are different types of sea glass earrings that vary in color and design. Typically, the rare the color, the higher the value of sea glass. It’s, therefore, pertinent to deliberate over the different options you have and determine the colors that most suit your needs, style, and interests.
1. Orange
Orange is probably the rarest sea glass color in the market. In previous years, orange was not a very common color in the production of bottles, so the likelihood of an orange glass is from household decoratives, warning lights or art vases. Orange being very rare, any glass gem or jewelry with this color is highly valued. Finding different types of sea glass earrings in an orange color is a perfect gift for someone you love.
2. Turquoise
This is an uncommon type of blue sea glass and the second rarest sea glass color. Just like orange, there was no mass production of bottles with that color. Turquoise can be confused to the deep blue aqua color, but one distinguishing factor is the presence of neon color. It’s hard to find an authentic sea glass charm of turquoise color and those available are highly prized. Some of the items that used this color include decorative tableware such as vases, candy dishes, and art glasses.
3. Red
This is the third rarest sea glass color. It’s one of the most sought after glass color with collectors paying a huge amount of money just to own this rare colored gem. Unlike orange and turquoise, red was a more popular color in producing dinnerware, Schlitz bottles, car tails lights or ship’s lanterns.
4. Yellow
Yellow falls to number four as the rarest sea glass color and since it wasn’t a common color for bottles, it’s hard finding one. Glass items with yellow color were mainly art glasses and dinnerware. You can spot a yellow sea glass just to find out that it wasn’t yellow initially. When ultraviolet rays from the sun come into contact with the clear glass, the selenium content inside it turns into yellow.
Other rare colors include pink, cobalt, opaque white and purple. Sea glass is obtained in every corner of the world with its existence dating back to the Mesopotamia era. Today, sea glass comes from the 19th and 20th centuries. It is essential to keep these colors in mind, especially when you are shopping for different types of sea glass earrings.
