Color Challenge - Tuesday Orange - Something Completely Different: Orange BEACH GLASS!

Every now and then I like to do one of @kalemandra's "color challenges," although I like to bring a little extra to #colorchallenge.  Thought I would do this, as I still have a little over an hour of Tuesday left, here on the US West Coast.

Close-up of various shades of orange sea glass-- pieces are about 1/4" to 1/2" long

So I have been a beach comber for most of my life-- there are pictures of me as a 3-year old, on the beach, collecting "bits and pieces" in my little red bucket. I guess I have just never stopped the habit!

Anyway, I have always been fascinated by sea glass or beach glass as some call it. 

What is Beach Glass?

Beach glass are the little pieces of glass you sometimes find on beaches-- they are the result of broken glassware and bottles that have been polished by sand and sea-- often over a period of 20-30 years (or more) to where they are no longer sharp and shiny, but instead have rounded edges and a softly "frosted" appearance.

I got quite interested in sea glass as a teenager and have been collected it ever since.

I know many people have found this glass in clear, pale green, aqua, Kelly green and brown, as these are the most common colors for glass containers. Just think about the color of the bottles your beer, soda and wine comes in.

But sea glass actually comes in many different colors.

Some years ago, I discovered that there is actually a sea glass collectors association and some sea glass can be extremely rare and actually quite valuable, relatively speaking. 

Piece of range sea glass with lines-- part of the orignal texture from an automotive turn signal

Which brings us back to "Color Challenge: Orange." 

For a beach comber and sea glass collector, orange is the single most rare color to find. You see, it was not used for commercial glass, and the only known pieces came the glass lenses on warning lamps or automobile turn signal glass. 

Think about it: Have you ever seen an orange piece of glass anywhere?

Now you might be thinking "If it's so rare, how come you have some, and more than just one piece?"

That's certainly a valid question. As it happens, I live close to a beach that was below an old seaside dump. All the garbage from three nearby towns would be taken to this dump and bulldozed over the edge of the cliffs into the ocean, all the way up until the 1950's. Along the way, a few pieces of orange glass ended up in the ocean and became sea glass.

To give you a sense of just how rare this is, serious sea glass collectors on eBay might pay as much as US $75-100 for particularly nice pieces of orange sea glass! 

Sea glass is one of favorite subjects for macro photography: These are all pieces my wife and I have found while walking around on our local beaches. 

Part of the fun is also in finding these old pieces of glass and then "playing detective" to try to determine what the glass might have been, in its original state.

So, I hope you enjoyed this interpretation of ColorChallenge: Tuesday Orange! If you are interested, I also suggest checking out the supporting @colorchallenge page.  

How about YOU? Are you a beach comber? Have you ever collected beach glass? Or have you maybe seen it in jars or bowls on the window sills at people's beach houses? Have you ever found a piece in bright orange? If yes, did you wonder where it came from? Did you realize that it was quite a rare treasure? Leave a comment-- share your experience-- be part of the conversation!

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Posted 20180206 22:50 PST