Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sea Glass Marbles - How Do They End Up On The Beach?

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SEA GLASS MARBLES
At left: A true, well pitted, blue swirl sea glass marble. Occasionally, a true sea glass marble piece can be found on the beach. It is very rare to find a marble or piece of a marble. Each of these was picked up by me along a Pacific Ocean beach. The rugged and rocky shores of the Pacific tumble our sea glass quite nicely. But why do we find marbles along the shore? How did it get there? What was it used for originally and why, so many decades later is it rolling around the beach?

HOW DO MARBLES END UP ON THE BEACH?
I've heard several theories (and speak about them often at sea glass seminars) about why marbles occasionally wash up on the world's beaches.layed games by floating a "moving target" piece of driftwood off shore then shot their marbles out into the water toward the target. Some seagulls often became the moving targets also. The resulting marbles which layed just offshore, one day washed beachward.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Look for photos of some of our rarest and oldest marbles in the August 2008 issue of National Geographic.

More About Sea Glass and Marbles at: West Coast Sea Glass

7 comments:

TreiFurb said...

the info on this glass blog is awesome. i loved reading about sea glass marbles and rare sea glass and ur beach glass photos are so great. thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Awesome Sea Glass Blog! My first visit and the info on marbles was wonderful w/excellent photos! Took a look around and bought the pale pink stopper stem...LOL!
Cheers YSGP

Anonymous said...

That's awesome to know that finding marbles are rare. I have been very lucky in that I have found nine(!!) whole, very frosty, marbles and two pieces of marbles, at the same location within two years time.

Congrats on your National Geographic piece! Love the red shooter marble!

West Coast Sea Glass said...

Hello Sea Glass Lovers,

Thank you for visiting The Sea Glass Blog. Your comments and sea glass enthusiasm are always welcome. And thank you for your patience as we navigate this whole blogging thing. We'll be posting again soon.

Mary Beth - www.WestCoastSeaGlass.net

beachglasstreasures said...

I had found a white "confetti" colored marble. Can anyone tell me about the marble and if it is rare? I cannot seem to find any information on the color. Thanks!!

West Coast Sea Glass said...

Hello BGT,
We would be happy to help you with your marble but could use some more info like where it was found, the history of the area etc.

Can you send a photo of it to: WestCoastSeaGlass@hotmail.com? Confetti marbles are usually older marbles. It can likely be identified by researching in a marble book or website. We'd like to help if possible. Thanks, MB

Anonymous said...

I have read that some soda companies put marbles into their glass bottles before adding carbonation. The marble would then float up to the top and form a plug keeping the bottle sealed and helping to keep the beverage carbonated. When these soda bottles were tossed into the sea, or in the land fills (along the shore) or thrown off a boat etc. they ended up in the ocean. This is often the case of marbles found around the United Kingdom where this type of soda was popular. There are still drinks made today that contain marbles, most often found made by Japanese manufacturer.