Aloha! We are very lucky here on Kauai to have our very own Glass Beach, located just a couple of minutes from our bookstore. Glass beaches, including Kauai’s, attract every kind of person: some just to look and some to
Aloha! We are very lucky here on Kauai to have our very own Glass Beach, located just a couple of minutes from our bookstore.
Glass beaches, including Kauai’s, attract every kind of person: some just to look and some to collect, both local and tourists, artists, photographers, children with school projects, people decorating their homes (both amateur and professional) or some just to put some pieces in a jar on a shelf.
On Kauai, what was once used as a dump is now a multi-colored coastline of naturally tumbled glass. Searching among these pieces one can find shades of blues, green, browns, whites, clears, and occasionally others. Kauai isn’t alone; there are actually many places all over the world that have the same phenomena.
But what are you actually looking at? Where did these tidbits come from?
“The Ultimate Guide to Sea Glass,” by Mary Beth Beuke, is a wonderful compilation and a beautiful full color novel-size book with glossy pages of the various types of sea glass that can be found around the world, bringing to life every detail of the pieces and types of sea glass it features!
The book is divided into five parts: What is Sea Glass; Types of Sea Glass; Collecting; Identification; Caring and Using Your Sea Glass. At 264 pages, this may be one of the most comprehensive books on the subject. How great will it be to know what you are looking at and where they came from!?
Also, Hawaii is featured many times throughout the book, making this compendium all the more relevant to us here on the island.
So, regardless of whether you are a Kauai visitor or a resident, this is a great guide for those looking to better understand one of nature’s natural gift of turning trash into treasures!
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Ed and Cynthia Justus are the owners of The Bookstore in Hanapepe.
