Big Hunk of Junk

My big hunk of black seaglass has become the butt of jokes on a certain message board, so I thought I'd defend it here on my blog. Ha! Craig found the piece back in October on Isla Mujeres. Now I can't be sure if he picked it up from our claim, or if he was pirating from Jana's, but I told him to throw it back. But he insisted, so I told him he could carry it home when he left the island because I didn't want to lug an ugly piece like that.


It's rare, but it does occasionally happen. He was right! That ugly chunk of junk was actually kind of a rare find. Reading through my new Pure Seaglass, by Richard LaMotte, after Christmas, I was astounded by what I read about black glass. Actually, Craig read it first and waved it in my face. To quote from the book:

Finding black glass should be considered fortunate, since it can often be presumed to be glass made prior to 1900 for beer, wine, and other alcoholic beverages. In many cases, the use of black glass bottles waned heavily by the mid-to late 1800s.

La Motte goes on to explain that iron slag was added to the glass to help create the color, which made the bottles resistant to breakage. And that is why black is often found in large pieces rather than small rounded pieces.

And here we have a large chunk from the end of a black bottle.


In the book, black glass is listed as a one in 2500 piece find!

I guess Craig was a lucky dog! I'm starting to anticipate my next seaglass hunt on Isla. I know we'll have to get up early with the birds to avoid the heat and beat our rivals to the claim. Ha!