The Heart of the Matter

With Valentine's Day last week, I've been thinking a lot about hearts. It never ceases to amaze me when that nature makes perfect sea glass hearts and I'm blessed to have a large collection of them. Besides sea glass hearts, I have some stone, coral and even a brick heart. So how does nature make heart shapes?

First, a word about how sea glass is made. Wikipedia says:
Naturally produced sea glass ("genuine sea glass") originates as pieces of glass from broken bottles, broken tableware, or even shipwrecks, which are rolled and tumbled in the ocean for years until all of their edges are rounded off, and the slickness of the glass has been worn to a frosted appearance.  (See more on this at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_glass)

To make hearts - or triangles, which are more plentiful than hearts - it begins with the broken glass itself. When  glass in the ocean is broken against a rock or other object, the point of impact radiates out from a central point. This creates one point of a triangle shape. This process is repeated for the other sides of the triangle. (More on triangle shaped sea glass later...)

A heart shape occurs when one of the flat sides of the triangle becomes chipped. After decades of tumbling in the rocks, surf and sand, a sea glass heart is formed. You can see that some of my sea glass hearts are very clearly a heart shape, while others are more subtle, with just a suggestion of a heart. 

I love using hearts in my jewelry and here are a few of my favorites:

You'll notice that I often place a sea glass heart onto a larger piece of sea glass as an accent piece. That's so I can use hearts that may be too small to be a piece of jewelry on their own. Sometimes simple is best, like the center photos and other times  I like to add beads or intricate wrapping. 

The next time you see a sea glass heart,  you won't have to wonder how it's made because now you know. 


​