I've always loved beachcombing. So when I moved to Maine, that was one of the first things I did. There's a beach a couple of blocks from my home, which was amazing to me. I couldn't believe that I had the good fortune to live in a neighborhood with a beach so close, yet I was also able to walk downtown. That's perfect! An unbeatable combination.
I developed this strange idea that it would be wonderful to earn my living as a beachcomber. I had been enjoying picking up little pieces of colored glass known as "sea glass," which most women in Maine seem to have a fondness for. Some of this glass is well over a hundred years old. It comes from bottles that have broken up and been churned by the waves and sand until the edges are smooth.
This is a piece of glass from a bottle that said "Max Factor/Hollywood" on it. You can see the raised letters, which are still legible.
When a friend suggested that I might want to make jewelry from these glass shards, I jumped at that idea, although I'd never made any jewelry previously. I went to the library and began bringing home books about making jewelry. I worked out a list of simple tools I would need, and a Dremel was the key. I knew I'd have to drill tiny holes in the glass to attach silver wire because I didn't want to get involved in soldering. I had to use diamond drill bits and had to wet the glass down with a paintbrush in between drilling.
And so I began my new career. I would go to the beach about five times a week. My neighbors thought I was daft when they'd see me heading off in midwinter. But when they saw the results, they got right "into" it. They were always wanting to know if I'd made any good finds.
This beach might not look too appealing to you, but if you were creating things from sea glass it would turn into a treasure trove. The beach is in South Portland and it has a lovely view of Portland's skyline. It's long, and there's sea glass everywhere you look. This was taken at low tide.
When I came here during those "minus" tides, I was able to walk past those wooden posts that you see in the water. They're pretty far out; there were great bottles out there. That wood was from a pier that burned down many years ago.
The reason there is so much stuff in the water here is because many years ago, before trash collection was initiated, people would just discard unwanted items here. It's almost hard to imagine, isn't it? I'd met a woman in her eighties who was walking her dog along the beach, and she was the one who told me. That's where all of the broken doll parts came from, and the old dishes and bottles of all sorts.
The beach is quite long and it has steps from the street above, making it accessible to the public. There have been few times when I'd come across anyone else on the beach, yet it's close to habitation, so it doesn't have a feeling of total isolation. There were a couple of instances at other beaches, where isolation became a negative aspect, and I stopped going to those areas alone.
I bought a tide calendar and I'd go to the beach about an hour before low tide. That way I could have two leisurely hours for searching, before the tide would begin coming in again. I discovered that when there were exceptionally low tides—minus tides—I'd be able to walk out much farther into the muddy areas. And that area held a vast array of antique bottles. Whenever there were really low tides I'd just be looking for interesting bottles. The sea glass I was able to get at any time, even high tide, on this particular beach.
Here are some of the bottles I collected during those special low tides. I really had no shelf space for them, but my son came up with a great idea. He told me to buy some pieces of glass and some brackets, and put them into my bay window in the living room.
So that's what I did. It was excellent advice. Now I can see my bottles all the time and the light comes through them, so I haven't lost anything.
I've saved the best for last. This bottle with the wonderful oxidation is definitely a favorite. The color is spectacular. And I found it lying on the beach, after a particularly bad winter storm in February. It was amazing to consider all of the large rocks that bottle had to pass in order to wind up on the beach. It would not have been surprising to find it stuck out in the muddy area. It evidently was looking for a good home and knew I'd be coming along. Smart bottle!
I hope you can tell that there's something very special in this round-bottomed bottle, which is referred to as a torpedo bottle. I found two bottles with these rounded bottoms on the same day, and they were next to one another. They're the only ones I ever came across.
These were some of the first soda bottles made, when carbonation was first used. Flat-bottomed bottles with corks as stoppers were used. There was a problem with this though. The bottles were standing up; the corks would dry up, and then they would pop out. That wasn't a good way to sell soda.
In order to solve the problem, they began to make bottles with rounded bottoms, which meant they'd have to be stored in a horizontal position, to keep the corks moist. This worked very well until caps were invented that would permit the bottles to once again have flat bottoms that could be kept in a vertical position. This bottle is over a hundred years old. The object that you see inside it is a clam. The clam went into the bottle when it was small enough to fit through the narrow top. And it was able to get its nutrients in there, so it grew and grew and grew, until it could grow no more.
When I picked the bottle up and realized what was in it, I was dumbfounded. It was an eerie feeling seeing this large clamshell in there and realizing its history. My first thoughts were: It was safe; but it was also imprisoned. I have no idea whether this was one of those "happy" clams you hear about. And speaking of them, that is a strange saying isn't it? Happy as a clam! What on earth could that possibly mean? Hopefully, this clam could see its relatives being picked up by seagulls and then being smashed on the rocks to become food. And he sat in his bottle, happily eating algae in the safety of his glass cocoon.
This bottle was one of the best gifts the ocean had bestowed upon me, and I constantly worried that it might break accidentally. Finally I had my talented friend David Howe build a wonderful Plexiglas enclosure for it. It's now in my dining room, attached to the frame in the middle of the window. It also has some tiny lights on the underside of the case, so I can light it at night if I choose to do that.
This is from a Christmas catalog of Down East magazine. They used to buy lots of my sea glass jewelry. Cobalt blue is the favorite color of many women for sea glass, since it's hard to find. Red is an even rarer color, but people aren't as fond of it. Aside from the broken pieces of glass I'd find on the beach and in the water, I'd also come across lots of old pottery. I combined these with various beads, including silver ones, and put it together using sterling silver chain.
This little card, which I considered to be my "magic card," was inserted with the jewelry, giving an explanation of what sea glass is and its use in the various pieces.
I sold the work in many stores, in the gift shop of the Portland Museum of Art, and I would exhibit yearly in the annual trade show held in Portland at the Civic Center. After about ten years of this I grew tired of it and gave it up.
The beach that's in the photo at the beginning of this article has lots of lavender glass, which is over a hundred years old. Manganese was used to strengthen the glass and there's a chemical reaction caused by sunlight that turns clear glass lavender, if it has manganese in it.
I consider the items in this miniature cabinet to be my "ocean museum." I have assorted doll parts and other oddities that I found along the beach and in the water.
I still go to the beach for relaxation. And I have the wonderful objects that I've found, which remind me of my days as a beachcomber in Maine.
A potpourri of equipment also confronts the card makers. 
