Do you machine tumble your sea glass?

I only use sea glass that we pick up from the beach.  I never machine-tumble our sea glass, polish it, or alter it in any way. 

In the past few years, sea glass has grown in popularity.  To capitalize on the demand, some people create fake sea glass and sell it as the real thing.  I never tumble, add artificial colorants, treat sea glass chemically with etching compounds, or use artificially created sea glass.

How do you drill your sea glass?
Sea glass must be drilled with a special drill bit, and it must be submerged in water while it is being drilled.  It's not a complicated process, but it is tempting to go too fast and then crack the sea glass.  The key is patience!

Where does your sea glass come from?
We collect sea glass in many different places.  Our favorite place to collect sea glass is Barbados because it's so beautiful there!

Do you just gather it up in handfuls?
There are a few places in the world where it is possible to literally gather beach glass in handfuls.  One such place is Spectacle Island near Boston which was used for three decades as a landfill.  Another is a beach in California near Ft. Bragg -- also used for decades as a landfill.  In Puerto Rico and Hawaii there are a few former military base ocean dumps where you can gather beach glass by the handful. 

But in most places, it is spread far and wide.  Some pieces wash up on the beach, and you can find them easily, especially in the early morning.  Other pieces are buried in the sand at water's edge and you have to wait and watch until they are uncovered by the surf. 

Are there any good books about sea glass?
Pure Sea Glass: Discovering Nature's Vanishing Gems by Richard LaMotte is first-rate.  Photographs are by Celia Pearson.  LaMotte goes into tremendous detail on all aspects of identifying sea glass, its historical significance, ways to assess rarity, and the most advantageous locations and times to search for it.  To develop his rarity scale, LaMotte compared over 30,000 pieces of beach glass.  It is hard to look at sea glass the same way after reading this book.  Celia Pearson's photographs are brilliant.

Besides making EarthSurf eco-jewelry, what else do you use your sea glass for?
Mosaics, mostly.  I especially like to make bathroom mirrors framed in sea glass because they give such a positive vibe in the morning.  One of the more unusual things I've created is a poster-sized mural of sea glass sailboats.