Local Artisans Exhibiting Sea Glass at National Festival

Cape Charles Mayor Dora Sullivan puts the finishing touches on her original sea glass creation which she will show at the 2012 North American Sea Glass Festival September 15-16 in Virginia Beach. (Wave photo)

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

Sea glass, or beach glass, is big business. If you live in Cape Charles you already know that.  Several shops on Mason Avenue sell sea glass, including “Dora’s Beach Glass.”

That’s Town Mayor Dora Sullivan, who doesn’t just sell glass – she also crafts it.

This week Sullivan has been putting the finishing touches on some decorative fish with scales made from green and beige sea glass. She’s taking the artwork to exhibit at the North American Sea Glass Festival in Virginia Beach September 15-16.

The festival is a big deal: 10,000 people are expected to attend.

As a sea glass expert, Sullivan was selected to address the festival. She plans to tell about Cape Charles, and why it’s such a good source of sea glass.

But there’s one thing she won’t be telling: where she gets her sea glass. That’s her secret recipe.

You can find sea glass wherever there have been people and commerce and trash, Sullivan explains.  A century ago, trash was dumped into the Chesapeake Bay. “What’s going to survive a hundred years in the water? Glass.”

The Sea Glass Festival takes place September 16-17 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Accompanying Sullivan will be another local glass artist,Ray “Fig” Lewis.

Every work of art for sale at the festival is required to contain at least one shard of real sea glass. The Sea Glass Association takes this very seriously, because artificial sea glass is rampant. Artificial glass comes from a factory tumbler, often etched by acid, to resemble the real sea glass that requires several decades of weathering from the sea.

Read more about the Sea Glass Festival at their website: http://seaglassassociation.org/Festival2012.html