Colours of the sea

Remember all those walks down a long stretch of beach, picking up shells and other treasures that the sea yielded at your feet? The joy of every beach comber lies in the treasures that he discovers while strolling along. A unique shell, a bunch of weathered pebbles, little pieces of broken pottery; each brings with it an unmatched charm. But the one thing that sets pulses racing is the discovery of a brilliantly coloured, well weathered shard of Sea Glass.

Rare, colourful, spectacular: three nice words to describe these lovely gems; though not quite completely. But what exactly is sea glass? And where do they come from? Well, a shard of sea glass actually begins its exotic journey as a bottle, glass, crockery or any glass product. The sea connection comes in only if it gets tossed into the sea. Once there, the waves and the currents take their time – tossing, breaking and tumbling it around until they are just right to be washed ashore. Of course, there are certain indirect causes for their existence too.

Back in the early 1990s when plastic wasn’t in use; most of the products came in glass jars. Moreover, recycling hadn’t quite caught on. Now, with the phenomenon of recycling having caught on, and plastics being widely used, sea glass is becoming more and more difficult to find.

Sea glass is rare. And depending on the colour, it can even be likened to precious stones in value. The rarity of sea glass colours depends on whether the glass colours are still in use or not. Glass colours that have not been manufactured for quite a long while – post mid-19th century – fall under the rare category.

Sea glass colours can be categorized under common, unique, rare and even to treasures. Colours like green, white and brown fall in the ‘common’ category. That is because these colours are still in wide use. Right from medicines, wine and regular fare, green, white and brown can be readily found. It’s the shades of green like emerald green and aqua green that fall in the rare category. Other colours of sea glass that fall in the rare category include cobalt blue, amber, lavender, yellow and seafoam green. These colours are no longer used in glass.

However, the rarest of the lot are colours like red, orange, gray, teal, milk white, aqua, jadeite, lime green, light blue, opaque blue and shades of pink, yellow and green in depression glass. But that’s not the end. There are finds that can be likened to treasure too. Like bottle or glass bottoms, glass with imprints and markings, or perfectly round marbles which could easily have come from the ballast of ships, to glass stoppers and corks. They are few and far between and it’s your lucky day if you chance upon them.