How to Make Manufactured Sea Glass

Make your own sea glass without littering.

"Sea glass" is the name given to pieces of broken glass discarded at beaches and worn smooth by the effects of sand and salt water, creating beautiful pieces of frosted glass valued by collectors and jewelry or craft makers. However, as environmental cleanup makes rampant littering a thing of the past, natural sea glass has become increasingly rare. While commercial manufacturers produce synthetic sea glass using expensive machinery and potentially dangerous chemicals, you can make your own pieces using nothing more than the right power grinder.

Things You'll Need

• Colored glass bottles and jars
• Old pillow case
• Twine
• Hammer
• Needle-nose pliers
• Leather work gloves
• Rotary cutter with diamond burr grinding bit

Instructions

1. Clean all glass containers thoroughly and remove labels and lids.

2. Safely shatter the glass. Place the glass objects in an old pillow case and tie closed with twine. Shatter the glass through the pillow case with a hammer.

3. Sort through the broken glass and choose shapes that will make good sea glass. Using pliers to protect your hands, pick through the broken glass and find chunks about the size of various coins. Discard any small pieces. Re-wrap and break down any pieces that are too large.

4. Put on your leather gloves; this will protect you from cutting yourself on sharp shards of glass as you handle them while protecting your hands from accidental slips of the rotary cutter.

5. Grind down the corners of the glass pieces. Examine each piece of glass and look for sharp edges, corners and pointy ends as well as any areas that jut out. Use the rotary cutter grinding tip to dull these.

6. "Frost" the glass. Turn the grinding tip on its side against the glass and run it over the entire outside surface of the piece, creating a frosted texture all over. This will imitate the appearance of sea glass.