Sea Glass Colour Guide

Originating from many sources including clear bottles, jars, and windows, this is one of the most frequently found colours. Older glass is more tumbled and appears more of a frosty white.

Abundant in new and old bottles, this colour is sourced from beer, whiskey, medicine bottles and more.

Emerald Green sea glass is found from many sources including beer bottles and wine bottles. Very common on most seaglass beaches but comes out beautifully in jewellery!

Commonly known as Olive Green, this colour comes from glass produced primarily for alcoholic beverages and tableware, dating back from as late as the 1600s.

Typically from old Coca-Cola and soda bottles, this light green hue is less common than other green colours and looks stunning when set in a silver bezel.

Often from decorative glassware and vintage bottles, teal shades are very rare and highly sought after. Glass-makers had to combine the perfect amount of cobalt, iron and chromium to produce this beautiful colour.

This colour comes almost exclusively from soda bottles manufactured in the 20th century. Drinks such as Sprite, ginger ale and 7-up were sometimes bottled in this colour glass! Due to the newer manufacturing, these bottles could be thinner and this has made this shade one of the brightest out there.

This soft blue hue of glass was created using copper, as well as naturally forming from copper in sand used in glass-making. Popular items made in this colour were mostly made in the 1800s and 1900s and include windows, windshields, fruit jars, soda bottles and medicine bottles.

Used in many old medicine and poison bottles, this deep blue shade was made by adding cobalt to the glass-making process- similar to Cornflower Blue.

Cornflower Blue was made by adding cobalt to the glass-making process. This beautiful pale blue colour was used for items such as seltzer bottles and Vick's Vapor Rub bottles.

A strong favourite of seaglass hunters, this gorgeous hue is extremely rare and was made in the 1800s and 1900s by blending copper with cobalt glass. Often used for decorate bottles and vases.

True purple glass was made hundreds of years ago by adding manganese to the glass making process. in the 1800s hair tonics was bottled in this. However, most purple pieces are known as 'sun purple' and are actually clear glass that glassmakers added a small amount of managanese to achieve clarity. What they didn't know is that this manganese reacts to UV rays from the sun and turns the glass purple! If you've got white seaglass, try leaving it out in the sun for a few days and some of your pieces might turn purple!

Most pink pieces originate from the Depression era, when it was used for homeware and decorative items. Some pink pieces are actually clear, with an integrated pink backing for decorative purposes.

Red seaglass is extremely rare, and often comes from old shards of lights on ships and cars.

Orange is one of the rarest colours you can find, as it has never been a very popular colour of glass! Orange seaglass may have originated from shards of old lanterns or decorative glassware.

Clear glass was sometimes made with selenium to achieve the clarity. However, selenium turns yellow when exposed to sunlight, similar to how sun purple gets its colour! Very small amounts of true yellow glass were also made for stained or art glass. Yellow seaglass is extremely rare to find!

Pirate glass appears black, but most pieces when held up to a light will glow green or amber. This type of glass was made to keep drinks kept inside the bottles from souring or going off, and glassmakers found that if they added lots of iron and chromium to the glass, it would become dark and also more durable than other shades. The name 'pirate' probably comes from how rum would be stored in these dark bottles! If you ever find a piece of black seaglass, make sure you hold it up to the light and see its true colour as you can find blue or even red Pirate Glass!