SeaGlass Vacation Time
October 29th 2013 Posted at The Beachcombers
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October 29th 2013 Posted at The Beachcombers
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September 16th 2013 Posted at Wire Wrapping
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We took another road trip and this time over to Nova Scotia in search of Jewel of the Ocean, you guessed….seaglaass.
I have packed my tools and a small bag of seaglass, my table and a number of beads. Is this going to be a workcation or a mini vacation? I searched the shore while waiting for the Ferry at Wood Island, Prince Edward Island to board and cross over to Caribou, Nova Scotia. I had good luck in a number of finds and now had to get myself back to the camper before the line started to move.
The internet was slow on the ferry so I shut the lid on the computer and started to daydream. Here we are on another road trip in search of seaglass. Do I not have enough of the sparkly stuff? Why continue to collect when so many others are doing the same thing and so many are wirewrapping these days. Oh to do something different, I need to find a new look, a new design….but what?
We get up early the next morning and get out onto the beach, its windy, the waves are high and crashing the shore line and there isn’t any sun in sight.
As the sun comes up higher it is starting to look like it might turn out to be an ok day after all.
I still can’t help thinking about a new design for my seaglass jewellery. I search my mind attic for ideas and can only come up with a combination of all thing that I like jumbled together like, antique, copper, brass, charms, seaglass and steampunk. I had fun creating that night and finding a new use for yet another way to reuse seaglass into jewellery.
the next day I could hardly wait for the sun to come up so I could take a few pictures and share my new necklaces. What do you think, original? catchy? Do you think they will be a hit?
This one with the butterfly has to be my favourite.
The next one I did was with this little fairy, she is so cute.
I love the way I used the chain in this one. I’m thinking of another design using seaglass and if it is another sunny day tomorrow I’ll have to share.
Time to hit the beach again before the sun goes down.
Blessings,
Cindy
September 1st 2013 Posted at Wire Wrapping
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Hello my friends Hello! I’m still here in the background, lately behind a pile of laundry and a sink full of dishes. We love our little Bed and Breakfast the B&B keeps us busy and sometimes we miss a few little things in life that we enjoy, like blogging and our anniversary — ooopps.
I have been working on a few new products in the gift shop that I’d like to share. They are just a little twist from my normal seaglass wirewrapping and I hope you like them. Most of our seaglass I’m imagining comes from shipwrecks that have happened over the last hundred or so years. I love finding old pottery plates that have washed ashore and image they have come to me off pirate ships or perhaps the Titanic. My brother gave me moms set of old dishes when she passed away and I broke one of the side plates and just can’t throw it away. After a few test runs at a thrift store plate, I’m almost ready to cut a medallion from moms old plate.
Here are medallions cut from a thrift store plate.
After smoothing down the edges and attaching wire on the medallions
I wire wrapped the medallion and set it
The plates are nice so I tried using Seaglass
I attached fairies that I ordered on Ebay
I used different coloured metals and they just blended together
I love this one, it reminds me of Point Pelee
I love fairies, don’t you?
As soon as there is another wee break in our bed and breakfast I plan to make a few more with dragonflies as they are another favourite of mine.
Be sure to have a look on my Scrapandwrap Etsy for our Prince Edward Island Seaglass and Wire Wrapped wee little things.
xo, Cindy
July 28th 2013 Posted at Wire Wrapping
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It was amazing to see everyone again this year, no I didn’t have a table or a booth and others try to encourage me every year to attend and plan to be in the PEI Seaglass festival. I don’t know what holds me back, “next year” yes I say that every year and I now have help with the table and I can go on line and book the Bed and Breakfast off line so we can make plans to be there the full weekend.
First I need to thank Matthew for getting up early and coming over to the B&B and making breakfast for everyone so early. He did a terrific job, did way more than I expected of him. He phoned me and said he had to get to work and I thanked him, he said he didn’t have time to clean up and so he was leaving all the dishes on the table and such. I told him we would do it when we got home. We were tired from the night before, wine, cards, line dancing you know the usual weekend getaway. Anyway, I wasn’t looking forward to 8 hour dirty dishes and all and when I walked into the kitchen and had a look everything was put away, dishes done, table cleaned off…it was amazing a big sigh of relief came over me. Now I’m wondering if it was Matthew who cleaned up (my son is a chef and doesn’t have to clean up his mess) or did our B&B guests do the clean up when he left for work. I’m almost afraid to ask. It has happened before, I’ve had to run to work and came home to find our guests cutting the grass.
The Sea Glass Festival, sorry I wander,
There was a guest speaker on Friday night named Richard LaMotte, he wrote the book called Pure Seaglass and he was there for a book signing. He was also there to be presented with unique finds so he could identify time and place. I had a small tupperware of finds and he went through each one with amazement. I showed off my pipe and he you could see his eyes getting bigger as he was describing this hand forged clay pipe.
“It is definitely from the 1700’s” he said. So I handed him my bottle I’d just found hours before on the beach at Souris.
He rolled it over and over, and said….”nice find, where did you find this again.” I told him it was just an early morning beachcombing on the Souris Beach and he started to explain the age by describing the seam welds.
“Do you see this seam? it runs along side but not all the way up to the top of the bottle it stops?” Yes, I replied. He continued with in the year 1890 this bottle was hand made, rolling it over he showed me how irregular the bottom was and how off centre the spout was placed on. Funny over breakfast this morning Blair had said some of the same words to me, I could almost hear his voice. Later I found out from Blair I’d fallen asleep at the seminar. Funny everyone thinks I had too much wine, if they only knew…. Oh well I’m sure glad to have friends that pay attention.
So hear is my bottle seam
I was also told that the bottle was made with manganese dioxide the year it was made and that is to clarify the glass and make it white because all glass is a light blue/green colour. Now when my bottle is left in the sun for so long the sun reacts with the manganese dioxide turning it purple.
Another early morning find is this amazing grey piece of seaglass
Well I’d better get breakfast started for my guests, it is back to the chopping block for me… the fun is over for another year.
Have a wonderful day, Cindy
June 24th 2013 Posted at Wire Wrapping
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There is plenty to like about the 4 seasons however there is more to do in only one of them. Winter months on Prince Edward Island are filled with snow and the days are long and the most enjoyment that can be had is only if you wear a one piece triple lined gear, drink hot cidar or moonshine and ride a snowmobile on the open trails. In the Fall a person could beachcomb, but why would you? Knowing all the beaches have been picked through by tourists and Island Seaglunkers. Summers, ya really, are you ready for this! the summer is the worse time to beachcomb. Yup beachcombing and summer just don’t mix, it is almost as bad as trying to make a balloon shaker and putting the rice in the balloon after you have blown it up. Our only excuse is we are busy with the Island Made Gift Shop and so we are not able to get to the beach in the summer time, oh well.
Spring time, now we are talking. In the Spring the roads in PEI heading to the beaches are still all mucky and not well traveled or not at all. These are clay roads we are talking and you could get your car tires stuck in the mud, its like walking in a full field of fresh cow patties, only a foot deep. However that is the best time to go beachcombing around here. No one is on the beach, its all yours and; every once in awhile you can catch a glimpse of an ice burg floating. The wind mixes with the sand on the beach and cuts into your skin as it hits. The beach is laced with mermaids tears, a drop here and there. Seaglass galore, and just waiting for you walking and picking.
I’m sort of scrapbooking today, filling an order for paper flower corsages that I sell on Etsy.com. My shop is called ScrapandWrap and I’m trying to put a little more in my shop today. Trouble is I have two yuppie grand-baby girls with me today and all they want to do is have a tea party in Grandma’s Tea Room.
Well, tomorrow is yet another day. Be sure my friends to live life to the fullest today and share the love you have in your heart with someone less fortunate.
Seaglass Cindy
April 16th 2013 Posted at Beachcombing
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Come to think of it the ice has just left some inlets on Prince Edward Island, so it must be time to go Beachcombing.
There is just something about the Beach that attracts an old Seaglunker like myself to the sea.
It could be the sound of the waves. I hardly think so, it must be the seaglass treasures that wash up on the shore.
PEI has many beaches, however the seaglass beaches are becoming few and far between. I remember, it would be a few years back now, but we could sit in the shallow shores and with every wave that came in so did a piece of seaglass. Now, when I walk the beach we often stop to talk to others. You know the others, they are the seaglunkers like myself that don’t want to admit to being out after the same treasures that you are longing for yourself. I’ve heard it all now, some say: “ah it’s good past time”, or “we do this for our health”, some let on that “No, not looking for anything just getting some exercise”, while others say, “I collected it but throw it back when I find it”. Today if someone asked me why I was on the beach, I’d say I was looking for inner peace and reflecting on the family’s and runners of the Boston Marathon who suffered injury from a senseless bombing.
If you are walking on the beaches in PEI chances are you have your arms crossed behind your back, your head it down and you are passing back and forth like your looking for something, and that would be seaglass. These guys have become quite the hunters of sea glass. Often MJ will sit down, we might have been fooled a few years ago thinking she is tired but now we know she has found a piece of seaglass. Usually 9 chances out of 10 when we walk over to her there is a piece within a foot of where she is. It is pretty bad when you beachcomb so often that your dogs know what you are looking for and try and help you out.
Braxton is on the lookout.
This is the Bride’s Seaglass Necklace I priced and put on the shelf today
I’ve taken to doing a little different style of wire wrapping called a Viking Knit, I like it.
A simple Seafoam Seaglass Pendant
This pink nugget made for a lovely pendant
Kelly Green Seaglass has got to be my favourite all time colour to wire wrap into a pendant
I haven’t decided to price this Cobalt Blue piece yet, I’m not ready to part with it yet, I think!
This was a fun piece of seaglass to wire wrap, clear and fancy free
Well that is it. These days I’m waiting for the nicer weather, organizing the gift shop and working on opening my Etsy Shop. I’ll have more to say on that later when I get a few more numbers added.
Do you get the chance to walk the beach where you live?
Have a good week, Cindy
December 16th 2012 Posted at The Beachcombers
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November 30th 2012 Posted at The Beachcombers
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This has got to be my favourite find of the week. I have found clay pipe stems dated back to the 1800’s and looked up the story on them and was amazed to find out the history behind a clay pipe stem. Back in late 1700 and early 1800’s people used to smoke clay pipes, then break off the bit of the stem their mouths had touched, and pass the pipe onto the next person so he could use it. The broken-off bit would be tossed into the ocean and over time these clay stems wash ashore, rounded with the while still inside. The pipe stems are easy to find, the hand forged clay bowls break and are not so easily to find. Either way I was doing a happy dance on New Dorp Beach after I bent down and picked it up.
Speaking of New Dorp Beach did I happen to tell you that we ended up there after leaving Prince Edward Island? We found folks that needed help and seeing we had a little bit of time on our hands we felt the need to volunteer our time and hang our hat in camp; organizing the supply tents, caring for folks and doing what we do best in the cook tent.
The big deal of all this was the sea glass just behind where we set up camp on the waterfront and the amount of seaglass that had come ashore in the Hurricane with storm Sandy. We would venture out early morning and pick sea-glass, run over to the cook tent and get the coffee on then back to our RV and wash sea glass. I took those pieces of seaglass and wire wrapped them into pendents and gave them out to the locals and volunteers of Occupy Sandy. What a souvenir and a reward to give back to the community what the ocean gave up.
Take care,
Cindy