How Do You Find All That Sea Glass?
From pouring over old maps, sailing to secret beaches, and diving for treasure, we are offering a peak into how we find our rainbow hoards of sea glass and create our unique line of silver jewelry.
Looking at History
People often ask us how we find our colorful cornucopias of rare sea glass. The answer lies in knowing where to look. We consult our charts to determine where there have been long-standing population centers in the Caribbean, and consider how oceanographic processes might polish and sequester sea glass along a shorelines. Culture and historical trade routes are also among our considerations when choosing sea glass hunting destinations. The products that people consumed throughout history depend heavily on their culture and location; these factors largely determines where we are more likely to find rare and desirable colors of sea glass.
Business Travel
After determining where to look, we raise anchor and set sail in hopes of adding new beaches to our list of secret spots.
Recognizance
When scoping out a new beach, we look for the right balance of environmental factors that can’t be evaluated when consulting nautical charts. A balance between fine sand and cobblestones is key to giving the sea glass a smooth finish. If there is too much exposure to swells or currents, sea glass will not be deposited along the shore line in large quantities; however, if there is not enough moving water, the glass will not become polished by the sea. Don’t be fooled by distance from the historical population center - the glass can sometimes be carried miles down the beach before we find it in high volumes. The process of finding a good sea glass spot is time consuming and we often don’t come up with anything, but when we do it is so worthwhile.
Covering Ground
Once we find a good site, we spend hours walking the beach and swimming the shoreline picking up sea glass. When on a sea glass hunting mission, we typically spend 8 - 12 hours per day knuckle-walking along the beach and sandblasting our bellies as we tumble around in the shore break collecting our bounty.
Processing
We rinse all of the sea glass that we find in fresh water. That’s it. All of the glass that we collect is polished by the ocean and we don’t modify it at all because we love that it is sculpted by the sea.
Establishing Product
Once we have beachcombed enough sea glass to start planning a new collection, we sit down and figure out how many orders, art shows, and online sales we anticipate doing in the upcoming year. We then plan out the number of pieces that will need for each event, and begin sorting our sea glass by size and color to determine if we have enough to make pieces for each product category (i.e. rings, bracelets, pendants, etc.). If we have enough, we start designing. If we don’t, we hit the beach again….and again….until we do.
Designing Jewelry
During the design process, we thoroughly examine at each individual piece of sea glass that we find (which can take quite a bit of time considering that we often find 5,000+ pieces on a singe sea glass hunting trip). Depending upon the characteristics of that piece of glass - its thickness, the roundness of its edges, its luminosity - we then decide what type of jewelry to make out of that piece of glass. We then tape each piece of glass to a cue card along with some brief sketches or notes about its design.
Manufacturing
Each individual piece of jewelry is then set in .925 sterling silver. We use hand-building techniques, meaning that the silver setting is built around the unique shape the sea glass, so every piece in our collection is truly one-of-a-kind.
Sales
One of our favorite parts of our jewelry process is interacting with our customers at festivals, markets, and art shows throughout the year. While we live aboard our boat in the Caribbean, our US real estate consists of a reliable Honda Civic coupe that we somehow manage to pack our booth into and use to drive to events throughout the SE United States. We also sell our jewelry online, and are working on expanding our wholesale opportunities within the next year.
Marketing
We often spend our evenings listening to music and coming up with witty one-liners for our social media platforms in hopes of keeping our customers interested and engaged in what we are doing. We are a very small team comprised of me (Montana), George, and our niece Aria, who ships jewelry for us from Ocean Isle Beach, NC. Every click, purchase, like and share we get makes our little world go around, so we invest time in telling the story of @silentflightstudios on social media and on our website.
Sending Our Jewelry Out Into the Wold
We love making our unique line of jewelry, and find great satisfaction in knowing that our customers enjoy wearing our products. Over 40% of our online costumers from the past year have returned multiple times to buy more jewels for themselves and others, and we regularly receive notes from customers telling us how much they are love their unique piece of jewelry. We are so thankful that we can find treasures from the sea, turn them into wearable art, and share them with the world. We wouldn’t be able to do this without our customers and are grateful to have the honor of creating products that spark joy.
See what others are saying…
Reviews from customers wearing our jewelry
“Best workmanship and quality jewelry! Unbelievable prices for a beautiful piece of sea glass set in 925 silver.
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“I’m a fan of your art for many years now. I am probably most impressed by the Beautiful balance of your jewelry. I have quite a substantial bracelet that rests so perfectly in place on my wrist. Not easy to do. I look forward to adding to my collection one day.
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“Love Montana’s designs..and I know the sea glass is real and found in some amazing places!!
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“You can see and feel the love and craftsmanship that goes into this authentic sea glass jewelry. I love the spirit of adventure that they represent and that each piece is truly one of a kind! I have several pendants myself, and my girlfriend was thrilled to discover their booth at an art show in NC last year. She came home with a gorgeous bracelet, and regret for not buying more!
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“They produce Beautiful jewelry!
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“I have multiple pieces bought some for my mom. The quality of work is on point!! Not that I want her to raise the prices but these are way underpriced
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“Met these two “gems” and their beautiful creations at River Fest this weekend in Wilmington. Absolutely beautiful creations and a story to match!
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“I recently discovered this very unique and eye-catching jewelry at Riverfest in Wilmington NC....what a find! I love wearing jewelry that is unique and one of a kind and this definitely fits the bill. I liked one piece so much I purchased it right off the owner’s neck. Really nice people to talk to and I look forward to adding more of their pieces to my collection.
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