about surf-tumbled glass

Surf-tumbled sea glass becomes rarer each day. Sea glass dwindles in quantity with each piece collected and dwindles in size with each tumble in the water. Since the 1960’s, cities no longer dump their garbage into the ocean, individuals litter far less and plastic has replaced glass.  

Many of the pieces I find on the craggy shores of Puget Sound are tumbled naturally for 60 or more years against large rocks and pebbles. A large wave from a good storm can lodge a piece of glass against a rock, chip an edge, and begin the long surf-tumbling process anew. Each piece of glass likely has a long history as a functional object in someone’s home and then an even longer history in the water.
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Sea glass origin is bottles/jars - milk of magnesia, whiskey, castor oil, canning, Vicks vapo-rub, Schlitz 1950's beer.

       Genuine sea glass is naturally tumbled in the surf of salt water.





The most common colors of sea glass are green, brown, and white (frosted clear). One in 25 to 100 pieces is amber, lime green, forest green, soft green or ice-blue. One in 200 to 1,000 pieces is aqua, cobalt or cornflower blue. Only one in 5000 pieces is turquoise, yellow or red. (frequency stats: Wikipedia 2/14)