Sea glass necklace

I grew up on Oahu and spent many of my best school vacations camping at a beach house with my family and family friends. Back in those days the beach house wasn't locked and the kids were free to come and go at all hours of the day. My favorite thing to do was wake up at dawn (gosh, I haven't done that for years....I'm more likely to be going to bed at dawn these days) and walk up and down the shore looking for whatever gifts the ocean had left for me. At the end of the family vacation I always returned home with a mayonaise jar full of shells, unusual rocks/coral and the prized frosted sea glass in the colors of the ocean. I still love the look of sea glass and wish I had kept the bottles of beach treasures. To celebrate the memory of my childhood I decided to create a sea glass necklace.

This necklace is very easy to make. The hardest part was finding just the right pieces of glass. I purchased a bag of tumbled glass (for mosaic) since a didn't have any real sea glass. Each piece for this necklace was wire wrapped with 26 or 28 ga sterling silver wire. Jump rings were used to link the wrapped glass together and to attach them to the the bail. The rest of the necklace is made by stringing 'new' jade chips on beading wire and adding a clasp. I'm not sure what 'new' jade is but it matches well with the frosted look of the sea glass. I bought the strand of semi-precious 'new jade' gemstone from Ben Franklin Crafts. Sometimes the store has other strands that look similar but have a different name. I gave this necklace to my sister for her birthday because I know she loves sea glass as much as I do. Today is my birthday so I need to make one for me, too. Why don't you try to create a found-object necklace for yourself? It will be a memory to wear around your neck and will surely start a conversation.