Snatched From the Surf

Click here to see what I made from a piece of the seaglass I found yesterday!

I wrapped the smooth bright green seaglass, as well as a butterfly charm, in sterling silver wire.
It is for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Snatched from The Surf

I spent about two hours on the beach this morning. When I fist arrived, I was disappointed. It was peak high tide! The large waves were pounding the shore and sucking sand out quicker than they came crashing it.

No seaglass and no swimming were the first things that popped into my head.

I stood on the edge of the surf getting splashed by the waves. I watched the sand and foam whip and swirl around my feet, occasionally crouching down to  let some of the waves and foam cool my back and head.

Once, I noticed a flash of green amidst the yellow swirl of sand and rock. Seaglass! As quick as I saw the green flash, a large wave came and washed it back out, but now my eyes were glued to the sand. Several times I watched this green flash wash up on shore only to be sucked back out while sand, rock and water raced all around it, smoothing its edges.

Eventually I was quick enough to catch the glass! I long, smooth gem of Kelly green seaglass. It was the first of five totally smooth pieces that I plucked out of the surf!

No every piece I found was smooth. I did not keep the rough pieces, but tossed them back into natures glass tumbler. 

It has been a long time since I've posted anything! Wow.

I just got back from a trip up to Bar Harbor and found some great seaglass while I was up there. So far, I've made a necklace and a pair of earrings with some pieces from seal harbor beach.


Check them out here:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77402792/vacation-memories-kelly-green-seaglass

http://www.etsy.com/listing/77352030/from-a-walk-on-seal-harbor-drilled-beach

And check out this treasury all of seaglass from the Etsy team called Seaglass Sisters. They have some wonderful stuff too!

Fun Collections!

I was recently featured in this wonderful collection of green garden themes items!



And I created this list of stunning black and white creations!

The Beach is My Pot of Gold - a Poem and a Collection of Fantastic Items

I followed the rainbow as far as I could,
but it stretched out across the ocean
to places I could not reach.

But where I stopped was sandy and cool.
This place, where land and sea met
was better than any pot of gold.
It was the beach!

The Wind Will Know No Bondage

The air plane slowly materialzes out of the fog,
It gets more solid as it descends.
I saw the plane as I was walking away.

I had been sitting on a bench,
in front of me was a paved foot path,
and  a seawall.

The Sea Wall was lined with stone post,
Stone post that are connected by chains,
chains there to keep us out of the water,
to keep us from falling off the edge.

They keep me back,
but they can'r restrain the wind.

It still blows cold,
Carrying the salt across to me.

The Wind is Wild,
The Wind is Free.

It comes to Me,
regardless of the chains.

It knows no boundaries, And will not,
Can not,
Be Restrained.









I made this necklace the other day, and in this photo, it almost looks like a bat or bird, flying in the free air

Roots in the Salt Marsh are Calling

 I come inside to the computers to write because I can’t stay silent, and if I write in a note book, no one will ever see my words.

~

In the freshmen writing class I TA in, we are reading a book called Dwellings. Its writer, Linda Hogan, talks about nature and her connection to it in the most compelling ways. Reading just a few paragraphs about sweat lodge ceremonies and wolves and how all things, air, plants and animals and us are all connected my mind gets worked up to a point where I can’t think of anything else.

I walk outside instead of taking the catwalk. The cold and the rain are no longer a bad thing, but they are alive and refreshing. I want to run down the harbor and put my feet in the ocean. Hogan talks about people using their hands to feel connection to a lost wild earth by touching animals. I like to take my shoes off and let my feet sink into the muck or the salt marsh like a trees roots. Mud squishes between my toes and it buries my feet. I inhale the salt in the air and the ocean, the one part of earth that has not been fully explored and developed my man, welcomes me home.

Sometimes I make money off of the ocean that I love. I collect pieces of colored glass that wash up on her shores and use to make jewelry that I sell. The glass was trash, carelessly thrown into water by people who did not realize how they might be hurting the earth. But the ocean was stronger than them. The powerful waves crashing on rocks and sand removed the sharp edges so the class would not cut the fish that call the sea home, and eventually, it gives the glass back to the earth. I find it, collect it and make things with it. I like to think am I doing the sea a favor by collecting her recycled treasures and the profit I make off it is my reward for respecting her.

Despite my urge to run to the ocean I turn myself the other way. I go to the library. The smell of cleaning supplies and paper seems repulsive instead of comforting. It reminds me how much I hate the way my house smells after my mother cleans. Most other people I know, including my mother, love that smell. They say it smells clean and fresh, I say it smells toxic.

I came to the library because I have things I need to print out for my classes, but all I think about it the ocean, about trees, and how the concrete and brick around me feels like a prison. Just a few paragraphs from that book make me feel like a caged tiger. Perhaps I am lonely or longing for lost wildness that my society has drive to extinction. Today I will repress my want to be wild and take care of the more practical one. Once I have finished this rant and let my feeling out with these words, I will do what I came to the library to do. But in a few weeks, when classes are over, I will escape to my sanctuary of salt marsh on Monomoscoy Island and climb the rocky peaks in Acadia National Park. I have to only hold onto this artificial, yet necessary practical pretense of living for a few more weeks, then I will have a few days of bliss where I can give into all my impulses to connect with natural world. 

The "Hello" Blog

So this is my first blog! It’s about time. People have been suggesting it to me for months, maybe years. I like to write, and I make jewelry. What better way to promote both hobbies than to start a blog. We’ll see about that. Hooray for short choppy sentences!

For now, let me introduce my self. My name is Sara, I am working on a Masters Degree in English and secretly plotting to change the rules of grammar and the spelling of certain words! Ha ha ha…ooops! Did I just write that? I guess it‘s not a secret anymore ;-)

I love the beach, and I love walking on it, especially in the winter when there are no people there, except me and a few other die hard ocean lovers. When I am on the beach, especially in the winter, I find seaglass. I use the seaglass to make jewelry and sell that jewelry on Etsy. You can see it by clicking on the pictures of seaglass jewelry that are above this blog or go to etsy.com/shop/shatteredsmooth.

So you may be wondering what this blog will be about! Its going to be about the things I create: jewelry and writing. I don’t what days will be for what yet, but one day I will post something related  seaglass, and another I will post something related to writing.

If I am motivate enough, I may even start posting installments to a work of fiction!

Yeah!

Out of all the stuff I have made, this piece is my favorite!  Just made it this morning.
The Mermaid's Gum Drop

So, that’s all for now! I’ll be back sometime before Sunday!