Sea Glass Art

August 15, 2011

Last week, in a wild fit of productivity, I whipped up this pretty sea glass artwork for our bedroom. We have an awkwardly shaped (and tiny) bedroom and the wall opposite our bed was crying out for something to liven it up, but it took me a while to decide what it was going to be.

This sea glass art is exactly what it needed. Calming and pretty, not small, but not overwhelmingly big, and best of all it used up some of my stockpile of sea glass! I banned myself from collecting any more sea glass until I found a use for some of it. So, moratorium over! Yippee! Sea glass collecting is one of my absolute favorite things. It drives Michael nuts.

We have a kind of celery green and khaki/beige/cream thing going on in our bedroom, so I chose mostly yellow-y green pieces of sea glass for this project.

I’m hoping it looks a little more complicated than it actually was. In reality, it was pretty quick and simple. Here’s how I did it if you want to try it yourself!

Supplies:

Shadow box frame (I picked ours up at Ikea)
Craft glue
Sea glass
Thick paper, poster board or canvas (you don’t want the weight of the sea glass to pull the paper down)

Steps:

Take the mat out of the frame and glue the poster board or canvas to the back of it with craft glue. Arrange your sea glass on the canvas in the design you like. Glue each piece, one by one, and wait for the whole thing to dry overnight. (I didn’t wait until it was totally dry, stood it up, and half the sea glass slid down the canvas. Grrrr. It’s hard, but try to be patient.) Then put the mat and sea glass back in the frame and hang it up! It’s that easy!

It’s a really hard spot to photograph because our bedroom is so tiny! But there’s a shot in the reflection of my wardrobe mirror. Yes, that’s me. And yes, I stick my pinky out when I’m focusing my camera. It’s odd. And yes, those are purple pants I’m wearing. Seemed like a better idea at the time.

 

14 Comments

  • Reply Brandi {not your average ordinary} August 15, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    Emily, this came out beautifully! I’m seriously considering venturing down into the Basement of Despair (what I affectionately like to call my parents’ basement) to dig out my old sea glass collection and do the same. Maybe I’ll even go to the beach sometime this week to find some more. Thank you so much for the inspiration!

    • Reply emily August 15, 2011 at 12:45 pm

      Do it, Brandi! I found it so satisfying to put the sea glass to good use! And I’m unreasonably proud of the result…my husband keeps rolling his eyes when I show it to anyone who comes in the house!

  • Reply Gerry August 15, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    Looks lovely, Em. I really like the colors. Did you know that some tourist shops on the Maine coast have started manufacturing sea glass. They take glass and put it in those tumblers that they use for stones. I guess there’s a shortage of sea glass because in Maine bottles have a deposit and are no longer tossed in the sea.
    (a bit of sea-glass trivia).

    • Reply emily August 15, 2011 at 9:47 pm

      I have heard of that!! Sounds a little like cheating to me, but I suppose if it’s due to a shortage, that can’t really be helped. But there’s nothing like walking along the beach and finding the perfect piece!

  • Reply Kara August 15, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    Well done Emily! This is lovely and perfect! Great job – thanks for sharing.

    • Reply emily August 15, 2011 at 9:46 pm

      Thanks, Kara!

  • Reply Sea Glass Sculptures | From China Village September 12, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    […] man, you guys. If you come here often, you know I love sea glass, so I think these sculptures by Jonathan Fuller are just so […]

  • Reply Kim June 29, 2015 at 6:03 pm

    just wondering if you remember what the frame is called for your sea glass art that you purchased from ikea. I cannot find one like it anywhere!!! Thank you!

    • Reply emily June 30, 2015 at 12:06 pm

      Hi Kim, I don’t but I know they’re still available at least in Dublin. They’re deeper, so sort of a shadow box type. Sorry I can’t be of more help!

  • Reply Beach Glass Art – jillenasuedotcom February 22, 2016 at 4:18 am

    […] through pages and pages of Pinterest looking for the perfect idea. When I came across this Sea Glass Art project, I knew it was what I wanted to do. We just painted the master bathroom “Sea […]

  • Reply Jen Blumenberg July 20, 2016 at 2:32 pm

    Hi – not sure if you’re still monitoring this posting, but thank you for the great idea! We just moved to a beach town and I have a small collection of sea glass and am looking for a way to display it other than in a tray in my bathroom – so thank you! I too LOVE collecting sea glass and now that we’re closer to the beach my collection is growing so I look forward to finding more creative things to do with it. Thanks again!

  • Reply Kelly March 10, 2017 at 4:00 pm

    What type of glue did you use?

  • Reply Gill October 18, 2017 at 2:25 pm

    I’m also wondering – what type of glue did you use? you say “craft glue” – what exactly is that?! thank you

    • Reply emily October 19, 2017 at 1:12 am

      I think I used the Irish equivalent of Elmer’s, but you could use something a little stronger. What I used has held up all these years and even has spent the last 2 years on a bathroom wall and hasn’t fallen off! I think the key might be using a piece of paper with a little grit, rather than very smooth or thin paper.

    Leave a Reply