Hunting for beach treasure

UPPER SANDUSKY — Julie Keller searches for treasure every chance she gets. She finds it on the beaches around Lake Erie — pieces of colorful glass in frosted shades of green, white and brown. Some of these tiny treasures have been tossed around and smoothed by the water for years. "You never know what you're going to find walking the beach," said Keller, who works as a hairdresser and nail tech in Upper Sandusky. She recently presented a program on sea and beach glass at the Upper Sandusky Community Library. The Wyandot County woman turns some of her finds into necklaces by wrapping and swirling thin strands of copper-, silver- and gold-colored wire around pieces of beach glass. Other times, she creates pictures. Bits of white glass and a bead become a sunflower, or a small seashell surrounded by four points of brown glass transforms into a tiny turtle. Keller's interest in beach glass started in 2018 when her family began camping at Lake Erie. She said many people are secretive about their favorite searching spots, but she usually finds her glass gems walking the public beach in Port Clinton. "In the summertime when you go, you have to get up really, really early as the sun's coming up to beat everybody else. It's kind of like a race," she said. Glass bottles, she said, have been used for centuries. Amazingly, these beautiful glass pieces started out as trash, according to Keller. In the 1900s, many cities used the oceans and lakes for dump sites. "Early civilization, they settled here near bodies of water," she said. "So when they were finished or emptied their products, they dumped their bottles into a ravine or somewhere and they got washed away. "So actually sea glass has come from humans littering, so kind of a trash to treasure storyline. I guess, its nature's way of recycling." There is a difference between sea glass and beach glass, she added. Sea glass comes from salt water, while beach glass is produced in fresh water. All of Keller's finds are from the Lake Erie area. There are over 2,000 shipwrecks at the bottom of the lake, she noted. "Lake Erie is very shallow. So on those ships were probably ceramic dishes and glassware, and all those things over time have broken up and washed ashore," she said. Most glass starts out fairly clear, she said. "Then it gets tossed around and it gets a little cloudier and a little cloudier until it's really cloudy," she said. "None of the edges are sharp. But it's interesting how they go from really clear to really cloudy, and it just depends on how many years they're tossed around in the waves and the sand." White is among the most common color found and comes from bottles and window panes. Green and brown are also readily found. Even Chlorox and other cleaning supplies used to come in brown bottles, she said, "and of course, beer." Turquoise-colored glass often came from Coke bottles, Keller said. She has a piece that shows a "C" and part of an "O" from the word, Coke. Purple and red are rarer colors. Keller doesn't have any purple beach glass in her collection and only a couple pieces of red, which may have come from a lamp, stained glass or a broken tail light. She said Avon products also came in red bottles. "Schlitz beer bottles, they were brown. But in the 1950s, Anchor Hocking made some royal ruby red bottles," Keller said. Dark blue pieces may have been produced from medicine bottles, while opaque pieces could have one time been a dinner plate or a cup, she said. Keller has the most luck finding beach glass in the winter when the snow has melted some and the lake starts to churn. Right after a storm is also a good time to look because waves bring pieces of glass onto shore, she said. At first, Keller stored her treasures in a jar. Then a friend showed her how to use wire to wrap the glass pieces and turn them into jewelry. Her artwork incorporates beach glass along with bits of driftwood, seashells, beads and buttons. "You just let your creativity go and see what you come up with," she said. Keller sells her pieces at the Mustard Seed Marketplace and Renaissance West, both in Upper Sandusky. Wolf: 419-427-8419