Blue sea glass and diamond engagement ring in recycled silver

I've been really enjoying working with sea glass and diamonds, I think it makes an amzing combination sea in fairtrade gold or recycled silver.

I created this triple ring in 100% recycled silver with a piece of rare blue sea glass and 3mm brilliant cut diamonds. A special engagement ring to celebrate Carys and Ross's not just having found each other and their beautiful union of love and joy, but also to signify the way that hope, and an extraordinary relationship with the ocean has helped to heal after deep tragedy. 

I am so honoured to make rings for all my customers, and to share in a small but significant way in some wonderful, romantic and sometimes awe-inspiring stories.

If you'd like to know more about about Glasswing Jewellery handmade ethical jewellery, sea glass and wedding rings head over to the Glasswing Jewellery website.

Sea glass - what exactly is it?

Sea glass , "seaglass" or sometimes "beach glass" is glass which is found on beaches after having been tumbled smooth and frosted by the ocean waves over an undetermined length of time.



Some of the glass I have found is very old, from an era when glass was far more widely used, and attitudes to the environmental damage caused by dropping litter into the sea were somewhat different to what they are today.

There is an infinite variety of colours of sea glass, and of course every single piece of sea glass is totally one off, having been on its own unique journey through the tides and currents of the ocean.

Some sea glass has travelled great distances, washing up on shores far away from where it was originally dumped, whilst other pieces have stayed trapped for decades in harbours, dropped by sailors and smoothed and tumbled by the tides whilst yachts and fishing boats go by.

Around the coast of Cornwall, we find lovely sea foam, aquas, pale greens, deep greens, and whites. These shades to me, represent the colours of the sea in Cornwall, and are the perfect choice to reflect the unique coast of my favourite place! Much rarer colours found on Cornish shores include blues, certain greens and deep aquas, and lavender.

Grey, pink, teal, black, yellow and turquoise and red (found once in about every 5,000 pieces), and orange (the least common type of sea glass), are all extremely rare colours. Rare sea glass in these colours is almost certainly rarer than diamonds.

The older pieces tend to be smoother, and rounded in shape, whilst the newer pieces wash up in all manner of squared or flat shapes. In jewellery all different shapes are used , and to great effect. The special 'glow' of sea glass, the way in which each piece catches the light in a different way, and the variety of subtle shades - pale aquas, frosted whites, palest blues to deepest colbalt blues and of course the array of greens all add to the magic and mystery of sea glass.

Recently my passion for genuine Sea Glass has led me to look for this increasingly rare commodity further afield.

I have managed to source some amazing examples of glass, some of which are at least 100 years old, that were discarded from an old glass processing in the North East of England, at Seaham in Durham. I have started to design around these pieces of glass, and I really love the pieces I've made.

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Beach life resumed?

Back to beach life, kind of...

Dare I say it? After approximately two weeks the rain seems to have stopped. Sunday greeted us looking like the kind of day you could trust your washing with. There's not been many of those lately. The gallons of water that have fallen out of the sky have left us with knee high grass and rampant triffids that were once nasturtiums, strangling our garden. I ventured out there this morning, followed by my peg bearer (the bean), and we surveyed our little jungle with awe.

A rare moment of quiet on the roof

There is one thing around here at this time of year which is the same come rain or shine, the manic (Herring) seagull activity. You don’t just hear a few gulls exchanging pleasantries, not like civilised bird folk. On the contrary, having returned to breed yet again (it's the same pairs every year) these brutes are noisy – in fact entering the garden you feel like some hapless screw interrupting yard-time at the seagull slammer. There are gull gangs on every roof, as far as the eye can’t see (but rest assured they can see you), squawking raucously. Presumably they are warning the posse about something they think you might do to them or their offspring should you decide to fly up to their turf. They just haven't got it yet - no wings. This continues for the duration, whilst you're pegging out the washing, or any other suspicious activity you are engaged in. If they think you look really shifty, or you are a dog, they’ll even dive bomb you for extra sport.

Making friends

So this morning, after running the seagull gauntlet, with the washing out and flapping happily in a sunny breeze, we logged on and checked the tide times. Then we headed off for a spot of beachcombing, after we'd had a tip off about a great spot for some serious sea glass pickings along the waterline. It felt so good to be leaving the house with buckets, spades and toast, rather than wet weather gear, and to see the kids go free range on the sand again at last.

Sea glass Bonanza!

Our sea glass haul was fantastic. My wrecking crew and I found some lovely pieces that really glow. I have learned that this 'glowing' effect is caused by the prolonged immersion of the glass in sea water (chemical changes), often over years, and of course, there is nothing like the beautiful smoothed and frosted effects caused by the constant tumbling in the surf, against rocks and sand. I can’t wait to get down into the workshop.

Here are some I made earlier, these can be found in my shop

Green Cornish Sea glass and recycled beads
sterling silver stacker earrings

Life's a beach

Praa Sands Kieran's photo

Sunshine on a rainy day

Summer beach life has been suspended for two days now, and given way to warm weather rain. The garden loves it, I love it, and the kids love it – as witnessed by all the people hanging out at Penzance bus station this morning, when the bean (two year old son) lay down in as many puddles as he could, as I poured his sleepy older sister and her toast on to the school bus.

There’s two distinct types of beach life here in Cornwall, at least for our family, put simply ~ winter beach life, and summer beach life. Winter beach life: mostly characterised by periodic blustery beach walks – brief, but strangely rewarding. These involve a sort of determined shoulder-hunched, hands in pockets, billow-trousered stride down to the water’s edge. Once there you pause for a moment, pained grin under a tightly tied hood, and take an exaggerated intake of ‘mmm fresh air’. Enjoying a rare moment alone as the kids play tug of war with a huge length of slimy seaweed, you look out to the wild white seas, and start to feel the wind penetrate your trousers. Pretty soon it's in to every other layer, no matter how ‘outdoorsy’, the goose bumps are rising up your whole body - the back of your head, then your cheeks, until fairly soon you are officially freezing. Defeated and shivering, having been on the beach for all of twelve minutes, you beckon the troops (who are so hot there’s a cloud of steam around them). You then fight the wintery gusts to get back up the beach to the car. Stuffing children, wet coats, arms, legs, and bits of seaweed in to the slightly swaying vehicle, you finally launch yourself in just as the wind whips the door shut.

Then you set off in search of a rare café that actually opens in the winter. If you’re lucky the rest of afternoon is spent enjoying mugs of hot chocolate and cakes, ears stinging, and feeling rather intrepid. (This beach life is particularly successful if experienced on occasions such as Christmas Day, when the cosy après beach rewards are extra delicious, and warming).

finding seaglass

Now, summer beach life is a different thing entirely. It’s a kind of ongoing state of being – both on and off the beach. When I lived in cities, if the sun came out, I always had the feeling that summer was going on elsewhere, without me, and the city sunshine was just a rather cruel reminder of what I was missing. Well, it was, and it's here! If we’re not off to Woodcraft Folk or Cornish Dancing or any of the other after school activities we seem to shuttlecock between each afternoon, then it’s off down the beach for tea .

There’s nothing quite like reading Biff and Chip in your school uniform, sitting on a body board, eating an egg sandwich. Or at least I don’t reckon there is, I don’t know, I’m not 6. But I know that would have been pretty cool when I was a kid.

Praa sands

Summer time in our place is measured by the progress in the washing cycle of swimming costumes and towels, and how dry the wetsuits are. The passing weeks are counted by the depth of the tan (dirt?) on the back of the children’s necks, the build up of sand in my bag, and how hard the skin on the soles of our feet has become. Buckets and spades start to breed, becoming lodged in almost every corner of the car, garden, bathroom….

I know it’s summer when my pockets are full of seaglass, which I do want (see below), and loads of other flotsam that I don’t, put there without me even noticing by smaller but equally avid beachcombers.

At weekends, in stark contrast to the winter, there’s no limit on where to go and what to do, the only problem is deciding which of our fabulous beaches to go to.

rockpool treasures

Actually, rain rain go away…I think the garden’s had enough now, we want to get down on that beach.

Oxidised silver and seaglass earrings.

Available in my Esty shop