Pricing and Availability
Pricing
Pricing of our jewelry depends on a number of factors:
- Color – certain colors very rare
- Light Opacity – the amount of light that shines through the pieces
- Shape – matching shapes and sizes can be difficult with naturally formed sea glass
- Size – larger, thicker pieces are more scarce
Availability
Man-made sea glass is produced by placing pieces of modern day glass into a rock tumbler or dipping them in acid to produce a soft, frosted finish. This sea glass is both less expensive, more available and consistent in size or shape since it does not depend on the uncertainties of nature for its manufacture. This process results in a type of sea glass that is quite beautiful and attractively priced.
Naturally produced sea glass is more expensive and rare because it begins life as randomly strewn broken bottles, glasses, jars, plates, windows or even shipwrecks, which are tumbled by the sea for dozens of years or longer to round off the sharp edges and frost the smooth surface.
The most common colors of natural sea glass are Kelly green, brown, and white (clear glass that is frosted) from beer, juice and soft drink bottles. Jade and amber from whiskey and medicine bottles, lime green from soda bottles, forest green and soft blue from soda, medicine bottles and old fruit jars and more rare. These colors appear as approximately one out of 25 to 100 pieces found.
Purple sea glass, citron, opaque white (from milk glass), cobalt blue, and aqua are rarer and more valuable, appearing perhaps once for every 200 to 1,000 pieces found. Extremely rare colors include gray, pink, teal, black, yellow, and turquoise. Those and red are found once in about every 5,000 pieces. The least common color is orange, found once in about 10,000 pieces collected.
As more and more people comb the beaches for examples of sea glass, in many regions it is becoming increasingly difficult to find pieces suitable for jewelry. If you have sea glass that you would like made into a fine pair of earrings, please feel free to contact us. Enjoy viewing our current collections and come back often we acquire new pieces of all types for our jewelry collections.