Handmade Jewelry Haven: Cobalt Sea Glass - Where does it come from?

Monday, July 23, 2018

Cobalt Sea Glass - Where does it come from?

One of my personal favorite colors of seaglass is dark blue, otherwise known as Cobalt or Cornflower Blue. There is something about that bright yet deep blue color that is just so....well...relaxing.

Cobalt has been in use before Roman times with the discovery of the cobalt mines in Central Africa. Did you know that Minnesota has the biggest supply of Cobalt in the US?

Cobalt and Cornflower Blue are made by adding Cobalt Oxide to molten glass and was originally made to protect the contents of a bottle from the sun. Exposure to bright light or sun could change the effectiveness of a medicine that was in a bottle. Cornflower Blue was made primarily for Milk Of Magnesia bottles where cobalt was reserved for bottles that contained poison. As there were many types and brands of poison produced throughout history, the Cornflower Blue of the Milk Of Magnesia bottle became the harder to find of the two. Both colors rank as 'Rare' on the Seaglass Rarity Color Chart.
(source: Pure Sea Glass)

Who knows....maybe I find it so calming as that is the feeling you get after taking Milk Of Magnesia!

My Milk Of Magnesia Bottle probably dates anywhere from 1928 to the late 1930's due to the 'M' stamp (Maryland Glass Company), and the sideways number 8.
(source: Society For Historical Archaeology)

So after ceremoniously finishing a bottle of Milk Of Magnesia, the bottle is tossed into the nearest dump and some of this refuse is hauled out to sea and dumped, or perhaps it gets buried in a land fill that is next to the ocean and then it starts to erode into the sea with the coming and going of the tides - think Dead Horse Bay (see an earlier blog post on this place here). After about 20-50 years of tumbling around on the ocean floor it gets broken and sanded down and WHA LAH! Blue Seaglass is born!

Then some very lucky person, such as myself, finds it along the Jersey Shore and makes a beautiful necklace for some lucky person to wear...such as yourself!

Blue Milk Of Magnesia Seaglass Necklace

To see more beautiful Seaglass Jewelry, visit Handmade Jewelry Haven here!

To learn some more interesting history of the Milk Of Magnesia history and to see some beautiful examples of blue seaglass, I have a cool downloadable .pdf.
Just tell me where to send it!

Also, come watch our short video on Cobalt Seaglass here!

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