Collecting Sea Glass - The Beaches Our Sea Glass Comes From
The Origin Of Our Collection
I began collecting sea glass on the OBX (Outer Banks of North Carolina) and amassed a sizable personal collection of sea glass during our 20+ year residency. I spent thousands of hours and walked hundreds of miles in pursuit of these addictive beach gems. For the first several years of making sea glass jewelry, I personally collected all of my own sea glass.
In the mid 90's the OBX had 2 hurricanes hit back to back. They did not produce significant real estate damage or news attention but erased our pebble beds and sloughs (where most sea glass is found on the OBX) for more than 2 years. This was the time By The Sea Jewelry started to blossom and at this time we started to purchase and trade from reputable collectors.
Now we have amassed a collection of jewelry quality sea glass in the 1000 pound range. We have invested over $100K to provide our customers with the best sea glass in the world.
While this sounds or looks like a lot of sea glass, it can takes 100's upon 100's of pieces to find one matching pair.
Remember..............We leave our glass just the way it was found on the beach.
In acquiring so much glass over the years, we are also able to offer such rare earring matches such are reds, oranges and multi colored glass on our site.
We will still purchase or trade sea glass, if you are interested, drop us an email. A leader in the sea glass industry since the early 90's, By The Sea Jewelry is always striving to bring you new sea glass sources.
Purchasing Sea Glass
Our first large collection of glass not personally found was based out of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Sizable sea gems in a myriad of colors arrived to me by mail from a friend whose husband was a helicopter pilot for the border patrol.... we soon found others when her hubby was reassigned in San Diego.
Most of our best glass in these years came from Puerto Rico. One of my original signature designs (Our Original Wire Bezel Setting©) started with this glass as it tended to be thick and not suitable for a wire wrapped setting.
About this time, the selling of loose sea glass on the internet had started and we started purchasing from around the globe - Prince Edwards Island, California, Hawaii and just recently in the last 15 years England.
Today our collection has pieces of sea glass from every continent.
By The Seas Favorite Sea Glass - English Sea Glass
(A primer on English or Seaham Sea Glass)
Seaham England - English Sea Glass is by far my favorite and now dominates my work. We have acquired a large collection of these rare incredible sea glass gems.
We were the very FIRST company in the USA to incorporate this unaltered awesome sea glass into our jewelry. We have spent a great deal of time and money investing in our stock of this sea glass and we maintain the LARGEST collection of this fascinating sea glass in the country. This allows us to offer jewelry that is available nowhere else in the US.
Sea glass from Seaham beach now tends to be smaller than many of the pieces we own, though beautiful colors are still found.
(To see some of our best multis and English glass, try looking in our Ultra Rare sections for Earrings and Pendants made from English Multis. By The Sea Jewelry also uses Seaham glass in our Limited Edition pieces.)
For more info on this amazing sea glass, please visit our page
Seaham Sea Glass - The Most Fascinating Sea Glass in the World
To view our English Sea Glass from Seaham England, you can check this LINK!
To Learn More About Sea Glass
Find locations to collect sea glass near your or near you next vacation, come and join us at Sea Glass Lovers, the Largest and most Active Private Internet community dedicated to sea glass lovers around the world.
With almost 30,000 members that share photos, craft and display ideas, beach locations, shard Id, it is the definitive source of sea glass information and community on the planet.
We are no longer on the Ning network but maintain the same privacy on our Facebook Page.