Perhaps it’s a discarded bottle from recent decades, or could it be a lost relic centuries-old? Tumbled by waves and transformed by sand, nature gives us back “beach glass”, unexpected and beautiful.

 

It’s interesting to imagine where the glass originated and how long it has been out there. Perhaps it came from one of the many shipwrecks that Lake Erie is so famous for—perhaps the war of 1812?! The possibilities are endless!

The colors are determined by the origin. Vick’s Vapor Rub, Philip’s Milk of Magnesia, canning jars, Blue Coral car wax, and Noxema are responsible for various shades of blue. Depression glass is responsible for the beautiful pastel colors that we find, old Clorox bottles, apothecary bottles and beer bottles give us the brown glass. Clear glass may come from bottles containing anything from milk to shampoo. Rare colors include red, (a coveted find from old boat lights) yellow, orange, purple and teal.

Everyone here at Relish takes great pride in knowing that we use all of the glass we find “as is”, we do not alter the glass in size, shape or polish. 
Nature has done a wonderful job creating these beautiful gems, and each time we go out “hunting”, we thank her by collecting the not-so-attractive debris that finds its way to our shoreline. With heightened environmental awareness and the increased use of plastics, beach glass is becoming much more difficult to find.

Due to the ever increasing popularity of beach glass, we have started using glass from other locations around the globe. We do our best to label the our jewelry, indicating where the glass was found. Having said that, 98% of our glass is handpicked from the shores of Lake Erie.

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