Pure Sea Glass Frost

What collectors refer to as white sea glass comes from glass that started it's journey as clear colorless glass. Glass experts refer to clear glass as "colorless glass." In the world of glass collectors white glass conjures up images of opaque white glass. In the world of sea glass collectors white sea glass refers to colorless glass because after years in the sea it takes on a frosty white appearance. It becomes pure sea glass frost. White sea glass has a diaphanous quality and shows the sea change that glass goes through in the ocean beautifully.

You may have noticed that some glass that was meant to be "colorless" has a slight color tint to it. Over the ages glass makers have struggled to make a truly colorless glass. This was a challenge as impurities in the ingredients would make that desired result difficult to achieve. Often the decolorizing agents themselves would result in glass that had a faint color tint. In the image above to the left you can see that some of the white sea glass has a slight color tint. On the beach or on your kitchen counter color tinted white sea glass may simply look like white sea glass. However, when mixed with a lot of other white sea glass or placed on a sheet of white paper the various barely there color tints reveal themselves.

White sea glass is considered to be the most common sea glass color of all. On beaches where a lot of sea glass washes up collectors have a tendency to pass it by and focus their energies on finding rarer colors. I love white sea glass and find that it can be very rewarding to collect it. You may not realize it on the beach but sometimes when you get home and start to sort your treasures you may find that you collected a piece that is embossed with letters or patterns. You may also find that a piece of what you thought was white sea glass when you were on the beach is actually pink or lavender.

 

 

Yes, a lot of white sea glass does come from ordinary household bottles and jars but there are also some glamorous and surprising sources...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Origins Of White Sea Glass In Puerto Rico

A seemingly endless of list of beverages, liquors, beers, condiments, cooking oils, herbs, spices, olives, maraschino cherries, cocktail onions, capers, perfumes, colognes, nail polishes, medicines, drinking glasses and mugs and countless other everyday household items have come in clear colorless glass at one time or another.

In addition to the common and mundane sources white sea glass in Puerto Rico may also come from window panes, decorative items with patterns and refrigerator boxes that often had intricate patterns. The piece of sea glass in the image on the left is very rare and has a pattern that indicates that it comes from a Victorian era window pane. Old Victorian houses and building are to this day still bulldozed down in Puerto Rico to make room for more modern structures. Items from these old buildings often find their way to the sea and wash up on the islands beaches transformed into beautiful treasures. White sea glass may be one of the most common sea glass colors but it often has a fascinating history.