How many times have you walked across the beach and glanced a lovely black pebble and walked on by thinking it's just that?
Me too! until I heard about pirate sea glass. Wow, how exciting does that even sound.
Just the name makes me want to channel my inner pirate, but for your sake I won't go there.
Except to say "why are pirates called pirates? because they Arrrrrrrrrrh" (couldn't help myself).
What is pirate glass?
My understanding is that it's one of the oldest forms of glass mostly used to bottle rum being shipped from the Caribbean in the 1800's. Smuggling was rife at the time which explains the pirate reference.
Whether or not there were actual pirates involved is debatable but I'm happy to go with it.
The glass was black to help preserve the contents of the bottle.
What to look for:
Basically, those black pebbles. They pretty much look the same, if anything I would say if you pick one up, pebbles dry slightly greyer and smoother. The sea glass will be more frosted.
Hidden treasure:
The most exciting thing about pirate glass, in true pirate fashion, it has hidden treasure.
If you hold it up to the light it reveals its true colour, often green or yellow but if you are really lucky in very rare pieces it can be red, blue or maybe purple.
Because it's older you can often see bubbles in the glass from it being hand blown.
So, if your on the beach and see a middle aged/older woman walking around fixated by the sand and occasionally holding something up squinting into the sun, please come and say Hi!
I might just be able to show you some pirate glass.
