SEA GLASS FESTIVAL AT LEWES, DE, ON JUNE 22 AND JUNE 23, 2013

The Lewes Historical Society's 2012 Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival was a great success last year. Held in the Historic Complex at Second and Shipcarpenter Streets in Lewes, Delaware, it attracted over 5,000 guests. The festival is a fundraiser for the Historical Society and an annual event that local artisans and patrons look forward to each year. This year's festival on June 22 and 23, 2013, is expected to draw an even larger crowd.
Over forty sea glass artists and other coastal artists participate in the annual event which features listening to keynote speakers, having sea glass shards identified by time and place of manufacture, selling jewelry, crafts, and sea glass, and enjoying beachcombing activities.
Sea glass can be found all over the world, and the beaches of the northeast United States' coastline are no exception. Delaware's Atlantic seashore and its Delaware Bay shore are excellent places to collect the surf tumbled shards of glass. The most prized pieces have a salty appearing patina on all sides and corners of the glass, with no shiny surfaces in evidence. These are considered to be jewelry class pieces and are more valuable than those pieces with shiny glass showing through. The colors range from mottled clear glass through browns, greens, aquas, blues, golds, oranges, and black. The best times to look for the tumbled shards are during spring tides and during the first low tide after a storm.
Test your eye for spotting sea glass on a sandy beach in the pictures below. Can you find the sea glass in each picture? There may be more than one piece in each picture!