Lewes Historical Society to host Sea Glass Fest
The Lewes Historical Society recently announced that it will host the 2010 Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass Festival Saturday and Sunday, June 26-27, at the Historic Complex in Lewes.
In 2008, the North American Sea Glass Festival was held in Lewes drawing thousands of sea glass enthusiasts from across the country.
In October 2008, Lewes hosted the North American Sea Glass Festival attracting over 5,000 visitors to the event. The sea glass artists will be joined by other coastal artists including decoy carvers and other waterfowl artists.
This event will also feature a great lineup of speakers, sea glass shard competitions and other fun activities. Speaker presentations will take place June 26 at St. Peter’s Church Hall and June 27at the Zwaanendael Museum; the speaker schedule will be announced shortly.
Like collecting shells, fossils, or stones, combing shorelines for sea glass is a hobby many beachgoers and beachcombers enjoy.
Hobbyists often fill decorative jars with their collections and take great pleasure in searching out a shard’s origin. Artisans craft pieces of jewelry, stained glass and other decorative items 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.
Sea glass has become a very collectible item in recent years, but natural sea glass is becoming difficult to find due to greater environmental awareness.
In addition to craftspersons from across the nation coming to Lewes with fabulous sea glass jewelry, art and decorative pieces, lectures will be given both days about sea glass collecting, photography, history, and the history and function of glass through the ages, especially as it relates to Lewes’ maritime past.
Admission is $5, with children under 12 free; wristbands will be issued allowing entrance both days and can be purchased beginning in early June.
Interested vendors or those who would like information about the event: call 302-645-7670 or go to historiclewes.org/events/seaglass.html.
