How to make your own sea glass

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How to make your own sea glass! If you kiddies are anything like ours then they love hunting for sea glass. We have been known to go to specific beaches just to find sea glass. And I think one of the highlights of our trip to France last year was finding a beach with all different shapes and colours.  Not being able to travel at the moment got me thinking. Not only are we looking for activities to alleviate the boredom but also all of us are missing travel desperately. So if we could work out a way how to make your own sea glass that could achieve both…. that would be a win-win. 

How to make your own sea glass

We are lucky enough to have a rock tumbler*. Charlie was given it for Christmas one year. He has loved polishing stones in it. However, I wondered if it would be possible to put glass in it! And if so what would happen? We decided to give it a go and I dug out an empty gin bottle. 

Breaking the gin bottle was actually a lot harder than we imagined. I think it is because it is made of safety glass. In the end, we wrapped it up in a heavy-duty black sack and hit it with a hammer.  You definitely need adult supervision for this bit, After we selected the pieces of glass we most liked the look of.  As the bottle had shattered the adults did this bit! We chose some larger bits from the top and bottom of the bottle. Along with some smaller thinner side bits. As we really had no idea what would happen. 

In the roller itself, we put a tablespoon of salt a handful of coarse sand. Ours was builders sand but I would imagine it would work with grit as well. Added the glass and then topped it up with water.

We left the roller on over the weekend and then outside of working hours for a week. As it is located in my office and although not as loud as rocks tumbling, there is no way I can work with that in the background. The boys could not wait to open it up and have a look. I was a little sceptical as it has only been on for a week… 

Yet we opened it up and had see glass!!! Unfortunately, the blue colour had disappeared. This goes to show that many of my beautiful gin bottles are probably sprayed. 

The hunt for coloured glass…

This now means we are on the hunt for coloured glass bottles and will be trying a wine bottle next. If you would like to try it for yourself we have the National Geographic Rock Tumbler*. We put it on outside working hours for one week and over one weekend, on the lowest setting just adding water, salt and sand.  There are other cheaper rock tumblers on Amazon* which I am sure will work just as well. 

Have you tried making your own sea glass?  I would love to hear about it in the comments below

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