Genuine Sea Glass verses Artificial Sea Glass

NOTE - Fanta Sea Glass™ is no longer available
from By The Sea Jewelry.com

For Over 18 Years By The Sea Jewelry had offered our artificial Fanta Sea Glass TM as an inexpensive alternative for rare sea glass colors. We will no longer offer this alternative in our By The Sea Jewelry line.

When we started making sea glass jewelry in the early 1990's we personally collected all of the sea glass used in our work in the Outer Banks Of North Carolina. As the business grew, we found a large demand on a wholesale scale for the rare sea glass colors (Blues, Aquas, Reds etc..... Fanta Sea Glass™ was our answer to this.

While artificial sea glass mimics the naturally found item, it cannot compete with the real thing......We had always carded our jewelry separately but now will no longer offer Fanta Sea Glass to our Customers.

 

As a Founding Board Member of the NASGA (North American Sea Glass Association) our motivation (along with a friend and avid sea glass supplier in the San Francisco area) was started as glass prices began to drastically rise and the demand for rare sea glass increased. We saw many unethical sellers representing tumbled glass as natural FOUND sea glass. It was our experience and knowledge of the tumbled sea glass product that made this group possible.

SeaGlassLovers is our newest endeavor is an online community of sea glass collectors around the world.

Sea Glass Lovers is a rapidly growing community of hundreds of sea glass collectors sharing locations, ideas, photos and finds. A full .com site seaglasslovers.com will be launched in 2010 and include interactive maps for finding sea glass, members areas, chat and MORE!

The Sea Glass Industry

Many tumbled glass companies sprang up in the early 90's offering both bulk sea glass and sea-glass-like glass jewelry. The the "craft" sea glass business was born!

Some of these companies STILL represent their glass as "Seaglass" "True Sea Glass" or found sea glass. Ethics is not their concern, only making money. It is hard for the untrained eye in some cases but there are several ways to tell if the glass is Genuine!

Natural Sea Glass Verses Artificial Sea Glass

There are many differences between Natural or Genuine Sea Glass and Artificial Sea Glass.

One of the biggest indicators is PRICE! For example - A pair of Genuine Found red sea glass earrings can sell for a much as $400 where a pair of Artificial Sea Glass will sell for around $20. It takes hundreds of pieces of natural sea glass to make a good match and when it comes to rare sea glass, this is a hard thing to do!

The quality of Genuine Sea Glass (natural sea glass unaltered from the way it was found on the beach) cannot be duplicated by artificial means. The telltale sign is the frost of real sea glass, this cannot be done in a tumbler or by acid bath but takes years to achieve in an alkaline environment.

Be careful when purchasing sea glass from someone who claims to sell genuine beach glass at cheap rates. Rare colors are just that, RARE, and a lot of people out there are selling manufactured glass as "SEA GLASS" or "BEACH GLASS".

If you see a bulk bag of sea glass in a shop or online and it contains rare colors (anything other than green brown or white), prepare to pay handsomely if it is real sea glass. If it is $8.99 or the like and contains red or blue etc, it is most likely craft glass or artificial sea glass.

No educated sea glass jeweler would sell a pair of red earrings for $25, if you see prices like these, they are like ivory soap, 99/100ths most likely FAKE seaglass!