Trust, verify, and learn
By Cindy Fraser
Russian sea glass (Cindy Fraser).
As a sea glass jewelry maker, authenticity is more than a promise. It is a responsibility. When someone buys one of my finished pieces, they are not just buying pretty glass set in gold or silver. They are buying a small piece of history that has spent decades being shaped by the sea. Every piece of sea glass has a story, and it is my responsibility to understand and share that story as well as I can.
Just as fine jewelers verify diamonds and precious metals, I believe we should apply the same care when working with sea glass. Because broken glass can be artificially tumbled to resemble sea glass, collectors either need to find it on a beach themselves or place complete trust in the people they obtain it from.
Russian sea glass examined by Richard (Richard LaMotte). Aqua sea glass (Richard LaMotte).
Independent Evaluation
Over the past several years I have acquired unusual, rare sea glass from trusted collectors around the world, including extremely rare lavender neodymium glass, possibly from Alexandrite tableware, from England, Spain, and Italy.
I have also been fortunate to connect with a collector who lives near the world-famous Glass Beach in Vladivostok, Russia. Once a massive dumping site, the beach now holds many decades-old sea glass, in some places several feet deep.
The colors are extraordinary. Bright yellows. Deep blues. Aqua. Pink. Purple. Perfectly rounded bottle bottoms. Tiny nuggets and bubbles in every imaginable color that almost look too beautiful to be real. One reason the sea glass from Vladivostok is so striking is its unique history. Russia has a long tradition of producing colorful glass for tableware, perfume bottles, medicine bottles, and spirits bottles, creating a broader palette of colors than collectors typically find on North American beaches. Combined with Glass Beach’s decades of accumulated discarded glass, energetic wave action, and seasonal ice that continually moves and tumbles the glass, the result is sea glass with exceptional color, remarkable conditioning, and beautifully rounded shapes unlike those found on many other shorelines.
I trusted the people who shared this sea glass with me, and after years of collecting, studying, and working with sea glass, I was confident in my own ability to recognize authentic material. Some of these pieces look quite different from the sea glass many North American collectors are accustomed to seeing. Whenever something falls outside our own experience, it’s natural for people to ask questions.
I welcome those questions because they create opportunities to learn.
Even so, if I was going to build heirloom jewelry around these unusual pieces, I wanted an independent, evidence-based evaluation. Not because I doubted the sea glass, but because I believe extraordinary claims deserve extraordinary documentation, especially when creating heirloom jewelry that my collectors will treasure for generations.
For me, seeking an independent evaluation wasn’t about uncertainty. It was about accountability. If I expect my collectors to trust the materials I use, I believe I should be willing to verify them whenever legitimate questions arise. So I reached out to Richard LaMotte.
Left to right: Richard LaMotte, Cindy Fraser, Cindy Fraser.
Sea Glass Expert Richard LaMotte
Richard began collecting sea glass along the Chesapeake Bay in 1999 and spent four years researching what became his landmark book, Pure Sea Glass. One chapter focused entirely on the conditioning and weathering of sea glass.
Before publication, that chapter was peer reviewed by two scientists. Dr. Donny L. Hamilton, Professor of Underwater Archaeology at Texas A&M University (retired in 2022), reviewed Richard’s work from the perspective of archaeology and long-term marine processes. Dr. Richard Baldwin, a materials scientist at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, reviewed the science behind glass hydration and directed Richard to the reference “Corrosion of Glass, Ceramics and Ceramic Superconductors.” Those reviews helped ensure the chapter was grounded in established scientific research as well as decades of field observation.
In 2006 Richard helped co-found the North American Sea Glass Association, now the International Sea Glass Association (ISGA), later serving as its president. Since then, he has examined thousands of collections, lectured extensively, and authored The Lure of Sea Glass.
What impressed me most, however, wasn’t Richard’s résumé. It was the way he approached the evaluation.
Left to right: Richard LaMotte, Cindy Fraser, Cindy Fraser.
Reading the Story Written on the Surface
Richard did not begin with a conclusion and then look for evidence to support it. He began with the evidence and allowed it to lead him to a conclusion.
His evaluation examined each piece under magnification, looking for the subtle clues the ocean leaves behind. Surface hydration creates the soft, frosted appearance we associate with genuine sea glass, while years of tumbling against sand, stones, shells, and other glass leave random impact scars, pitting, rounded edges, pleasing shapes, and the overall conditioning that cannot easily be duplicated. He also considered where the glass was found because every shoreline shapes sea glass differently.
Many of the pieces have been naturally conditioned into beautifully rounded, well-formed shapes that make them especially desirable for jewelry, yet those very characteristics sometimes lead people unfamiliar with beaches like Vladivostok to question their authenticity.
One of the biggest lessons I learned is that genuine sea glass should not be expected to look the same from every shoreline. Different beaches produce different results. Wave energy, the composition of the beach, water chemistry, and even seasonal ice all influence the surface of the glass.
In his article “The Science of Sea Glass” in Beachcombing Volume 49 (July/August 2025), Richard describes research from Italy showing dramatically different abrasion rates from one beach to another. Even genuine sea glass from two different beaches may develop remarkably different surface characteristics. In some environments, sea glass may develop in a fraction of the time required on another beach. The ocean writes a different story on every shoreline.
Richard’s evaluation of my own collection brought that principle to life.
Evaluation of Sea Glass (Richard LaMotte).
Putting the Science to the Test
Among the pieces I sent Richard were some very rounded, aqua blue pieces collected in Vladivostok, Russia. At first glance and in photos, some pieces appeared unusually smooth. Under magnification, however, Richard found the traditional random impact scars, surface hydration marks, and conditioning expected of genuine sea glass.
Richard was actually surprised to see surface hydration marks and variable pitting on pieces that appeared smooth in the initial photographs. Having the glass in hand made a tremendous difference.
He concluded that the unique shoreline conditions, including aggressive tumbling and environmental differences, contributed to their distinctive appearance rather than indicating they were artificial.
One additional factor collectors should keep in mind is that many jewelers lightly oil heavily frosted sea glass before photographing or setting it. Just as collectors often dip a newly found shard in water to reveal its color, a light coating of oil temporarily deepens the color while reducing the appearance of surface frost. A photograph alone of oiled pieces can sometimes give a misleading impression of a piece’s true surface texture.
He reached similar conclusions about the orange and red pieces from Russia, as well as the lavender pieces from England and Italy, noting surface hydration marks, conditioning, and weathering consistent with authentic sea glass.
Confirmation
Understanding how sea glass is authenticated doesn’t diminish its mystery. If anything, it makes me appreciate it even more. Every piece has survived decades of waves, weather, and chance before finally ending up in someone’s hand.
For me, Richard’s evaluation did more than confirm the authenticity of my collection. It reinforced the professional standard I want to uphold throughout my jewelry-making career.
Years of collecting, studying, and working with sea glass had already given me confidence in my ability to distinguish authentic sea glass from artificial imitations. Richard’s independent evaluation didn’t teach me what authentic sea glass looks like. It strengthened my confidence that the experience I had gained allowed me to recognize genuine material.
What his evaluation provided was independent confirmation of my conclusions, something I felt was important whenever unusual materials invite legitimate questions. More importantly, it gave my collectors the assurance that those conclusions had been verified by one of the world’s leading authorities on sea glass.
When I ask collectors to trust the materials I use, I believe that trust should be earned. Sometimes that means asking questions, seeking expert evaluation, and following the evidence wherever it leads.
My hope is that this article encourages collectors to slow down before making assumptions about unusual sea glass simply because it isn’t something they’ve seen before. Curiosity, careful observation, and a willingness to learn strengthen our entire community. Every genuine piece of sea glass tells two stories: the object it once was and the remarkable journey the ocean wrote across its surface.
This article appeared in Beachcombing Magazine Volume 56, the September/October 2026 issue.
