Jewelry Blog

If you like the look of beach glass but don’t live near the beach, then maybe you can try making your own. My glass buddy, D.D. Hess, not only sells “faux” beach glass, but she has been generous enough to tell me how and let me share it with you. After I tell you how to make the beach glass, I have an idea for adding it to a fun necklace design.

1. First, you need some sheets of glass. If you are already a glass fuser, then you probably have buckets of it. If not, check out your local stained glass supplier and see if they’ll sell you some scraps. Normally, they’ll sell this by the pound.

2. Now you need to make smaller pieces out of your scraps, unless they are already small enough for jewelry. To do this, wrap you glass in a few layers of newspaper, and give them a few taps with a hammer. Of course, if you have a glass-cutter, you can use that too.

3. If you have some super sharp areas on the glass, you will now want to give them a quick zap with a glass grinder.

4. Next, use a drill press to drill some holes through your pieces.

5. Finally, to give them that frosted look that most sea glass tends to have, dip the glass pieces in an etch all dip solution. There are a number of brands. One is called EtchAll and is available at Michael’s. One way to dip the piece is to run a wire through the holes in the glass that you made and dip them in the solution. (Make sure to follow manufacturer’s safety procedures when using this product.)

6. Allow the glass piece to dry, and you have your faux bead glass ready to add to your jewelry creations.