Every piece starts as a shard of broken glass, tumbled smooth by the Atlantic for years, then finds a second life as a tiny painted character with something to say.
One of the original mini-canvas pieces that started it all — sea glass, acrylic paint, a permanent marker, and a bad pun.
Sea Glass & Sass is a one-woman operation run by a retired schoolteacher who traded lesson plans for tide charts. After three decades of classroom art projects, she's applying the same patience — and the same sense of humor — to something she can finally keep for herself.
Most mornings start with a walk along the coast, eyes down, looking for that particular frosted glint that means a piece of glass has been tumbling in the surf long enough to be ready. Every color, shape, and level of "frost" gets sorted and saved until it finds the character it's meant to become.
Every shard is beachcombed by hand — nothing purchased, nothing tumbled in a machine. Here's how a piece of trash spends decades becoming a treasure.
Old bottles and jars break down along the rocky shoreline and get worked over by waves, sand, and salt water — often for twenty years or more — until the edges go smooth and the surface turns matte and frosted.
Collected on foot from public beaches across central and southern Maine, in every season, in every kind of weather. Every trip is different, and the rarer colors — soft blues, ambers, the occasional red — are always worth the cold fingers.
Back home, each piece is sorted by color and shape, then hand-painted, inked, and glued onto canvas, driftwood, or into frames — usually with a face, and often with something a little cheeky written underneath.
Ready-made pieces sell out quickly at craft fairs — custom orders are always welcome by email.
A 3"×3" canvas on a mini easel, starring one sea glass character and one bad pun. The original best-seller.
A single frosted piece, hand-painted and fitted with a ribbon. Holiday and year-round designs available.
A 5"×7" framed piece built from an assortment of glass — waves, a shoreline, sometimes a boat or two.
Send a photo and get your pet reimagined in sea glass, painted to match their coloring and personality.
An 8"×10" canvas with a full scene or a larger character — the showpiece of the collection.
Sea glass letters or accents arranged around a name, house number, or your favorite piece of advice.
Pieces rotate through a handful of local shops and seasonal craft fairs across central and southern Maine. Exact locations and fair dates change month to month, so the most current schedule always goes out by email — reach out below to get on the list.
Have a beach in mind, a pet to immortalize, or a pun you can't stop thinking about? Send a note — replies usually come within a couple of days, tide permitting.
✉ hello@seaglassandsass.com