The Beauty of Sea Glass Rivals the Beauty of Antique Rugs

There's a house in Provincetown, Ma., where one man has spent days, weeks and even years walking the beaches nearby in search of genuine sea glass. He adds his latest finds to the ever-growing stack in a large clear glass bowl on his dining room table. It's not an unusual hobby at all, especially for those who spend time at the beach.

    But it's not just a hobby for some. Recently, Hyannis, Ma., played host to the North American Sea Glass Festival. Really. Participants brought their large and small, blue, red, green, brown and clear shards of smoothed-by-the-elements remains of jars and Coca Cola bottles. There was a competition and the best piece of sea glass was chosen: a red piece shaped much like a jelly bean, whose owner was awarded $1,000 cash.

    Which just serves to show that nearly everyone who wants to can get in on a competition to have their what-ever named the Best of...cities, cars, home designs, cheerleaders, antique rugs, antique dealers, deals of the day, days of the week. The important thing is to have a variety of entries and sound criteria for selection.

    Say the category is Persian rugs. The first and foremost criteria is that the antique rugs be 1. from Persia, not just Persian-style, and 2. that they be actually antique rugs, created in the 19th or early 20th centuries, not woven on a loom last month. The Best of means just that, too. In the case of the sea glass competition, first place only goes to glass that is red (very rare), yellow or turquoise (also very rare) or orange (the most rare.) The condition of the sea glass weighs heavily in the competition: rounded sides, not sharp edges.

    The celebration of sea glass, while seemingly a light-weight hobby, is in many ways an endangered species as littering has become passé and plastic has become the container of choice for many. So, while it may appear to be a bit unusual to wander the beach picking up broken pieces of glass, it may, in fact, be a dying art form. That is why some antique shops and those who make jewelry from genuine sea glass (and not the kind they put in a tumbler at home) are able to charge fairly high prices for the actual glass or the finished piece of jewelry. A pair of earrings featuring genuine red sea glass can sell for more than $200, while a pair of orange sea glass earrings can bring well more than $300. Not too bad for trash left at the beach.