Cut sea Glass beads

- - Sea Glass Beads

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"The Quick Start Check List for Getting the Most Out of Your Sea Glass."

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Or make them yourself?

Are you looking for beach glass beads for a beading or jewelry project? Then this is very mportant - how to tell the real thing from the imitation. Also, how to make sea glass jewelry beads. On this page:

1. How to Make Glass Beads with Beach Glass

Beads made of sea glass (these are usually smaller pieces of sea glass that have been drilled through) will definitely add excitement and variety to many sea glass crafts projects. And, , these will add charm and personality to your beading crafts.

That said, the making of beads out of sea glass can be a challenge to get the right pressure so you don't break them while drilling.

You'll need to have the proper and a such as a Dremel or similar drill.

Step-by-Step: Drill a Hole in Glass

1. Place glass to be drilled on top of a sponge in a container filled with enough water to cover the glass and about 1/4 inch of the drill bit.

2. To prevent skipping, hold bit at an angle and create a groove.

3. Once you have a groove started, drill straight down using light pressure until the hole is complete.

4. To avoid undue chipping, drill half way from one side of the sea glass, then turn it over and finish drilling from the other side.

Tips:

Real_Sea_Glass_Bead Start with larger pieces of sea glass. The smaller the beads, the harder to drill. Also, there is an approximate 5-10% breakage rate when drilling sea glass.

As you become more adept at drilling, move on to smaller pieces. Expect breakage and don't practice on your rare pieces!

Use your craft quality pieces to practice on as opposed to your good jewelry quality pieces.

2. Purchasing Sea or Beach Glass Jewelry Beads

If you'd rather purchase sea or beach glass beads take note of the following tips:

First, beads that are advertised on the internet as real sea glass are not actually real sea glass in most cases (see the from misleading sales hype).
If you're happy with imitation sea glass beads that's fine but don't be misled into thinking you're getting the real thing.

3. Identifying Genuine Sea Glass Jewelry Beads

These ended up in the surfline of the ocean and became tumbled and worn like all true sea glass and then were found by a collector on a beach. They're extremely rare, and it would be highly unlikely to find them for sale anywhere because collectors have a tendency to hold onto these prized possessions.

Second, there are true pieces of genuine sea glass that have been drilled and become irregularly shaped sea glass "beads."

You'll not find them all uniform in shape like the beads for sale all on a string.

They're easily recognizable by the following features:

No two "beads" would be alike in shape or size.
Rarely if ever would the bead be perfectly round or oval.
The beads would never be shiny; rather, they would have the true sea glass tumbled look to them. (See the page on .)
If a bead is a rare color, it would be highly unlikely to be matched to another similar bead in shape.

I won't say this never happens but it would be very rare to see.

If you see, let's say, a bracelet for sale that has had the sea glass drilled to be used as jewelry beads and the beads are all uniform in shape, size, and are a rare color, I'd be suspicious, especially if it was selling for $30.

True rare jewelry quality pieces, especially those used in necklaces, would be way more expensive.