Etched in my memory
California is the state that holds a mystique like no other. Famous artists like The Mamas & The Papas, Melissa Etheridge, 2Pac, U2 and many others have penned love songs to it. Hollywood surely shapes too many of our social ideals. The gold rush of the mid-1800s has been replaced with the head rush of “making it big” in the Golden State. I, too, went there last month with an agenda and dreams…but instead of Hollywood stars, I just wanted their trash.
Somewhere in time a decade ago, I read or heard that red seaglass was abundant under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It made sense. A body of roughly churning water where the Bay meets the Pacific, sloshing and crashing under 40 million vehicles a year…surely there was enough broken tail lights and marine craft debris to bring this rumor to life!
I hear on a daily basis, “Isn’t red seaglass the most rare color?” It’s actually orange, but the main reason that both are so rare is because they require gold to be added to the molten clear glass in order to get these hues. There were many more red glass tail lights made for autos (until the late 1940s) than there was orange Depression Era orange decorative dishes. That’s why red is 1 in 5,000 pieces on the Seaglass Rarity Scale, where as orange is a whopping 1 in 20,000! In other words, if a beachcomber found 20,000 pieces of seaglass, only ONE might be orange, statistically!
Back to my Bridge of Golden Dreams. I’m a true Seaglass Nerd, using Google Earth and satellite images, tide charts and more to locate the highest possibilities of finding these frosty glass shards (technically “sherds,” but that’s another blog altogether). Golden Gate Beach State Park east of the bridge had all of the hallmarks of a “gold mine” with its rough waves, driftwood strewn everywhere and lack of crowds. I found some glass treasures for sure, but none were red and I realized that you can’t actually beachcomb directly under the bridge because of the water.
Baker Beach in the Presidio to the west of the bridge is far superior both for sunset views, photos and collecting (head’s up that the area closest to the bridge is clothing-optional, if you look up from the shoreline and aren’t expecting this!). The sand is coarse like sandpaper and perfect for wearing down sea glass. I recommend shoes with socks, bringing band-aids, a full water bottle and a large canvas bag for your glass and wood finds.
The Pacific shoreline of this majestic state yields so much beauty! I’d love to hear about your seaglass adventures too! Feel free to email me at MySeaglassJewelry@gmail.com and you can shop for seaglass jewelry - including new pieces in my California Collection - at MySeaglassJewelry.com
Happy collecting!
Aimée
