Beer bottles and sea glass

Beer Bottles and  Sea Glass

Check out flea markets, garage sale re-sale shops to find vintage bottles

Tumbling vintage bottles to make sea glass I recently found 4 vintage beer bottles at a garage sale. I paid $2.00 for the four of them. They were not in very good condition. By the color and shape of the bottles I would judge them to be about 100 years old. In fact the lady who sold them to me said that she know them to be at least that old. Two of them were cracked and had little value for re-sale. I had the ideal to tumble them to see what kind of faux sea glass I could make. I wrapped the bottle in several layers of old towels and broke it up with a heavy hammer. After sorting through the busted glass I collected just the pieces that would most likely make a nice piece of sea glass jewelry..I have a small toy rock tumbler that I also found at a garage sale. Using just some beach sand and a small amount of Silicon Carbide grit, I let the tumbler run for ten days. I changed the water and sand after first three days and several times after that. To my surprise, the pieces had a very nice crystalline patina and looked very much like genuine sea glass. I would venture a guest that most jewelry makers working with sea glass would not be able to tell the difference. The only distinction that I can make about this man made sea glass is that it was made from an antique beer bottle. I would not advertise it as "pure sea glass" It was fun to make and I enjoy experiencing with tumbling vintage glass bottles. _

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