How to make your own sea glass!

Our most popular video is one we made years ago showing how we tumbled glass to fill our flower beds. Time and time again people have asked me about the process. While not a true 'sea glass' this is an excellent approximation especially if you want uniform color or large quantities.

Tumbling glass for decorative purposes is a great way to reuse and recycle it. While not a true 'sea glass' as that is as much a chemical process as abrasion, what we produce is close enough for our purposes. If you do not needs yards of glass this can be replicated using a small rock tumbler, conversely if you need many yards of glass non road worthy cement trucks can be picked up for the price of scrap.

I think this is a very neat project, one that will make your home stand out. I love how the color of the glass changes as it become opaque becoming more intense. Just about anyone can get large amounts of glass for free, with clear, green and brown the easiest. I do not care for the brown tumbled but to each their own. A decent source of colored glass is second hand shops. Tell them you will buy their glass cheap, even if broken. Getting a dollar or two for something that got dropped is way better than nothing. Also artisan glassblowers might be a good source, especially if you do not care about mixed colors.

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[LincolnLogCody]

will say brown beer bottle glass survive the process and keep its color?

[acme663ryo]

@LincolnLogCody Colors get more intense because the light is reflecting off the scratches rather than passing through. It would stat brown but would get darker.

[sfartiste]

PLEASE....call your product tumbled glass as it is NOT sea glass or beach glass.

[acme663ryo]

@sfartiste True but people don't come looking for a way to tumble glass, they come looking for a way to emulate sea glass, and in our case on a large scale. I imagine that if you added a little muratic acid to the mix you could get a very, very close approximation of true sea glass but it would be a very nasty slurry. For now I will leave the title as is but will add a disclaimer to the description. Thanks for your interest.

[acme663ryo]

@sfartiste And to be honest the title slide already said Tumbled Glass so it wasn't as if we were trying to mislead.

[acme663ryo]

Labels do not survive, you might have to pick out bottle caps, plastic rings or stickers but nothing paper lives through the event. We screen to size on wire mesh in a tub of water.

[manokuki21469]

never thought such beauty is hidden in plain sight, mahalo

[Zardoz5280]

wrap the barrel with an old rug to dampen the noise. glue it on with tile adhesive. use small rug sections

[Magicparadise234]

Nice

[senoraTam]

This is great! Thanks for showing us. We are in the process of building our own house, I will try your method with the cement mixer when the house is done. Thanks again soooo much!

[atak135]

Your a smart man... wife usually gets her way. Your garden is beautiful so in the end you win!