Beach Glass Jewelry making

Make Sea Glass Jewelry: About Sea Glass Jewelry and Processes to Make It Sea Glass is beautiful unadorned. However, to be able to wear your favorite piece, there must be a way to attach (hang or clamp) it to your clothes or body. So when you make sea glass jewelry, you need to consider the ways of doing this.

1. Drilled Sea Glass Jewelry

Drilling sea glass is probably the most basic way to make sea glass jewelry that can be attached (hung) using a solid piece of seaglass. Once it's drilled, you can simply string it on a cord or necklace using an attractive wire bail to attach it to the necklace or earring or even a simple jump ring.

Pros: Once the glass is drilled, it's a fast and easy way to make nice sea glass jewelry.
Cons: Sea glass will crack sometimes with drilling.

Drilling ruins the intrinsic value of a good piece of sea glass!

For these two reasons, drilling is recommended ONLY for your less valuable pieces.

Another drawback is the cost of purchasing a drill and learning the technique of drilling glass. Caution must be used, as the drill can easily slip and drill through a finger.

2. Wire Wrapped Sea Glass Jewelry

Wire wrapping is probably the most commonly used way to mount sea glass jewelry. Depending on your taste, it can be very spare or as ornate as one would like. It results in a very attractive setting that emphasizes rather than detracts from the sea glass.
Pros: Only a relatively small number of tools are needed to begin. Technical skills are not required to the extent needed in some of the other methods.

Inexpensive materials such as copper or bronze can be used effectively as well as more expensive silver or gold to make sea glass jewelry.

One of the advantages is that this method PRESERVES the value of the sea glass. It can be taken apart and stored in a collection, if desired. This is important, as, with time, the sea glass may end up being worth much more than its setting.

Cons: Coming up with a design that's unique and graceful but that still HOLDS the sea glass firmly despite the wear and tear on wearable jewelry is a challenge. For that reason, a valued piece of sea glass could fall out and become LOST very easily if not done correctly.

3. Bezeled Sea Glass Jewelry

Bezeling is another common way to make sea glass jewelry. Bezeling is used in making settings for stones, ceramic, or glass in rings or pendants. The piece is circled and hugged by a flattened wire rim (usually silver) which itself is soldered to a backing of a thin sheet of the same metal. This works well with many of the pieces of flat sea glass.

Pros: Although not for total beginners, the process can be learned and outlay for equipment is not outrageous. There's not much design skill needed to make an nice bezel, only the technique, but bezeling does set off the sea glass very nicely. It is a good technique to use to make sea glass jewelry.

Cons: Basic-to-intermediate metalsmithing skills are needed, especially in dealing with fine detail in soldering the ends of the bezel and the backing.

Care must be taken when folding or molding the bezel around the edges of the glass.

Fine jewelry tools are needed to do a good job.