My Favorite Floats

Here are a few photos of my favorite floats.  I beachcombed them myself when I lived in Alaska.  #glassfloatjunkie #glassfishingfloats

Assorted swirled floats found on remote
Alaskan beaches by me!

 

Russian star float with a dot I found.
This is a beautiful float, but it does have a crack.

This is a tri mold float with 2 spindles inside the float!!  I found
this gem on a remote Alaskan beach, too!

 

Beachcomber's Fun Fair ~ Ocean Shores, WA ~ March 1st & 2nd

Many glass fishing float collectors congregate each March to Ocean Shores, Washington for the annual Beachcomber's Fun Fair.  This event was created over 25 years ago for those of us who love the beach & all things associated with the beach.  Clearly, my favorite thing found on the beach are glass fishing floats!  Below are a few photographs from the weekend, which include several examples of floats.

Author & long-time glass fishing float collector/researcher,
Walt Pich.

Alan Rammer, author & long-time collector discussing
floats, I'm sure!

Alan Rammer's booth.

Items found on the beach are exhibited & judged
each year.  These were all found on the Olympic Peninsula.

Items found on the beach believed to be from the 2011
Japanese tsunami are placed on exhibit.

These items were just a portion of those found on the
Olympic Peninsula beaches by John Anderson.

Shannon is giving a little Float 101 to some folks.

Floats from John Anderson are entered into the glass fishing
float category.  Pardon the reflection of the overhead lights
on the glass!

Various floats entered into the glass fishing float category.

A Kanji roller from John Anderson's collection & display.

A spectacular cobalt blue swirled float from Mike Taylor's collection.

Another float from John Anderson's display.

That jumbo roller had many folks drooling!

"Colonel" Rich Richardson & Walt Pich.
Both of these collectors have been to Japan many times &
have done a great deal of research for our hobby.

Several of the collectors managed to be sitting at the same time,
so I snapped this shot.

Octopus Fishing with Rollers

Well, I've drawn the conclusion that blogging isn't going to win me any awards, so I'll just post when I can & try to provide you all with some useful information, or stories!!  :)

Often I get asked about how Hokkaido rollers were used for fishing.  For a while, I wasn't exactly sure because I had heard various stories & couldn't confirm them.  I was finally able to get some photos & the actual rundown on how they were used, so I wanted to share it with you!

Many of the rollers I sell in my Etsy shop are from Hokkaido, Japan & were used for octopus fishing.  They are made from recycled glass in iron molds.  Sometimes the rollers have the kawaguchi marks on the seal button.  This is an indication that the float was made at the Kawaguchi Glass Company.  When translated, kawaguchi means "river mouth".  Most of the time they are unmarked.

As you can see in the photos below, the rollers were tied to the line with several feet in between them.  Sometimes the smaller, 2.5" floats were also used in addition to the rollers.  Attached to the main line were vertical lines that had fine stainless steel hooks alternated with small rocks.  The fisherman stretched the lines out for miles along the coastline in shallow, sandy bottomed areas.  The octopus would swim through the lines & get entangled.  The size of the rocks used were based on the size of the roller used.

The fisherman also used, what is commonly known, as a cranberry dot float.  Here is an example of a cranberry dot from my collection.  It still has the original wooden tag on it.

Here is an example of a blue dot float, which was also used for octopus fishing.

Sometimes Hokkaido rollers were also made in a beer bottle brown color if the factory got that color of glass to use.  These are rather uncommon.  Here is an example of a beer bottle brown roller from my collection.

I want to thank my friend, Charles, for providing me with the photos & information on how the rollers were used.  And, if you have a roller & need a substitute for rolling out cookie dough, one will work in a pinch!  :)

Until next time, I leave you with this........

8 Blocks

I finally made it to my new home along the Oregon coast! And I am a mere 8 blocks to the beach. I have been there almost every day with my dogs! I have already picked up almost 75 sand dollars! And, I have taken photos of magnificent sunsets.

I feel so revived & re-energized now. It was the change I certainly needed in my life to move forward, clear my mind & start working towards new things! Although, now my mind is beginning to get filled with other ideas & inspiration!

I have been working on my glass fishing float business in between walks, unpacking & exploring. I have already made lots of great connections & I believe I'm going in the right direction!

With that being said, I'd like to share some photos of the area that I've taken the past 2 weeks. I will do a post about glass floats soon!

Enjoy.............

Ecola State Park

Cannon Beach

Del Rey Beach

The beach at Seaside

Sorry for Neglecting You!!

So, I found out that like everything else I try in my life, I start it & then I get temporary ADD. Hope I don't offend anyone, but that's the best way I can describe it. I get so side-tracked with so many different things. I think Heather at SimpleDaisy seems to relate to me! So sorry for neglecting my blog & my blog friends. I'll try harder to stay fOcUsEd!!!

For now, here is a quick lesson about glass fishing floats with spindles!

Spindles are formed inside glass fishing floats during the glass blowing process, or when they are formed in molds (depending on how they are made). They are simply threads, or filaments, of glass that have basically dripped inside the float. Some can be thicker than others. It all depends on the float.

Here's an example of a very cool spindle inside a 4" float!



Here is an example of a 3-piece mold float with 2 very fine spindles inside. This is actually very, very rare! I found this float myself on a beachcombing trip along the coast of the Aleutians a couple of years ago. You can imagine how incredibly thrilled I was to find this beauty! It's a total gem & someone would have to pay me a million dollars before I would get rid of it!!! If anyone has that kind of money laying around & would like to buy this float, feel free to contact me!

You might have to enlarge this photo to see the spindles clearly.

All types of floats have spindles, although they are uncommon to rare in most. I have a really cool sausage float with a spindle inside. This one is quite rare, as well. These floats were made in a mold. Here's a photo of it.


I have actually found 2 other floats with spindles out of thousands & thousands I have beachcombed. The filaments of glass are so fine that they can barely be seen. If you consider the journey these floats had out on the ocean & the fact the spindles are still intact, that is quite remarkable.

There is also another category of spindles ~ side spindles. These aren't really comparable to an actual spindle, but sometimes they are pretty cool. Here is an example of a side spindle in a 12" pink float I recently acquired. It's the line on the right.



This occurs when a drop of glass basically dribbles freely on the side. That's the best explanation I can come up with at the moment, but I think you can probably understand what I'm trying to say!!

Sometimes the side spindles are stuck against the interior of the float. Occasionally, they can be quite pronounced & noticeable. I've even seen some that look like ribbons on the inside of the float. I have one in my collection, but no photo at the moment.

Here are a couple of photos of side spindles from floats I sold in my Etsy shop.



So, if you have any glass fishing floats, or find any, be sure to take a close look inside!! You might find yourself a really unique treasure! Feel free to write with any questions.

Here's a little something extra.........


I took this photo in Homer last week while I was delivering a glass float order!

Have a GREAT week!!!

Life is CrAzY!!!

Things have been crazy here & I've sort of neglected my friends in blog land. So, while I'm still working on my other post, here are a few pics from my trip to Homer, AK last Saturday. Enjoy!










Enjoy the rest of your week & be sure to check out my Etsy shop!!