The 2014 Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival June 28-29 at the Lewes Historic Complex is an event not to miss. Last year the festival attracted more than 4,000 visitors who went to see sea glass artists, joined by other decoy carvers, waterfowl artists and others. They’ll be back this year, with live music on Saturday and delicious food by Casa Amici all weekend. Like collecting shells, fossils or stones, combing shorelines for sea glass is a hobby enjoyed by many beachcombers. Sea glass hobbyists often fill decorative jars with their collections and take great pleasure in sourcing out a shard’s origin. Artisans craft beautiful pieces of jewelry, stained glass and other decorative treasurers from sea glass. Sea glass can be found all over the world, but the beaches of the northeast United States, California, northwest England, Mexico, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Nova Scotia, Italy and southern Spain are famous for their bounty of sea glass, bottles, bottle lips and stoppers, art glass, marbles and pottery shards. The best times to look are during spring tides and during the first low tide after a storm. Shards may also evidence a frosted side and a shiny side, most likely because they are pieces broken off from larger glass objects still embedded in mud, silt or clay, which are only slowly being exposed by wave action and erosion. With greater environmental awareness, there has been a decline in naturally occurring sea glass, creating a great market for expensive and rare pieces. At the festival, listen to presentations such as Kristen Qualls of Wheaton Arts, who will speak on “The Art of Glassblowing”; renowned local photographer Kevin Fleming, who will discuss the experience of creating his book “The Beach;” and Richard LaMotte, author of “Pure Sea Glass,” who will speak about collecting sea glass. For more, call 645-7670 or visit historiclewes.org.
