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!

 

I'm FINALLY moving to the BEACH!!!!

Many of you don't know this, but I have been trying to sell my house & move for just over a year. Well, I finally sold it & I'm gettin' out of here!!! So long to the cold, dark, loooooong winters & hello to the Oregon coast!!! I'm leaving on November 13th & driving 800 miles to Haines, AK, catching the ferry on the 15th, arriving in Bellingham, WA on the 19th & driving another 300 miles to the Oregon coast! And, being the independent woman I am, I am doing this all alone. Well, I will have the dogs & the cat with me, but no human is accompanying me! I am SO thrilled, but not so thrilled with packing. And, if you can only imagine......I have hundreds of glass fishing floats to drag with me! I just finished wrapping & boxing up about 300 floats that are in my personal collection. Let me tell you........although I adore my floats, they are a total pain in the hiney to pack!!

I packed all of these & many more.............





So, with that said, my time is limited for the next few weeks. However, I will have lots more time after I'm gone, as I am having someone manage my business in Alaska & I will be able to focus more on my blog, my Etsy shop, my website & all things associated with glass fishing floats. And, as you know, that is my passion & it makes me SO happy to know that I will be able to do that!!

I leave you with a quick lesson on different colors of swirls in glass fishing floats & photos from those I have in my collection.

Swirls are simply caused by different colors of glass getting mixed in during the glass blowing process. Often a different color of glass is on the rod the glass blower is using & as the float is getting blown, the other color forms swirls around the circumference of the glass.

Here are some examples.





And finally, I just want to ramble on about something I think is quite important. It's true what they say...."If life hands you lemons, make lemonade". I have had a not-so fabulous past few years. Life has tossed me some curve balls & believe me, I had my share of pity parties, cried plenty of tears & been really ticked off at the world. Through all of that, many lessons have been learned. I am a much stronger person. I regained the spirit I thought I had lost, gained the self-confidence I thought I would never get back & I am more determined than ever to fulfill the dreams & goals I currently have & even some of those I forgot about for a while. If you are reading this & something about what I am saying sounds familiar, I encourage you to put on your BIG GIRL PANTIES (or boxers - just say NO to tighty whities) & fight for your life!!! Life really is short & it seems as if we get caught up trying to please everyone else that we forget to please ourselves. Anyway, that's really all I have to say. It was just on my mind.

I leave you with this.......

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!!

gLaSs fLoAt gIvEaWaY!!!!

As I was sorting through all of my amazing glass floats, this little voice inside my head said...."Hey, you should give some of these things away!!! It would make someone's day to win such a cool prize. I mean, after all, who wouldn't want a glass float that spent years & years & years floating on the ocean currents until it finally got tossed onto a remote beach by the pounding surf???". So, I am listening to that voice.


Check it out.............



Tell your friends. Matter of fact, just tell everyone!!! Good luck to you all & if you don't win, you can always go here!!!

Lucky Ducks....

As some of you may know, finding a glass fishing float on the beach is typically a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I have many people write me & tell me about their experiences & how they have scoured the beaches for years in search of the elusive glass fishing float. For many on the West coast, this spring, the ocean has washed many floats onto shore compliments of the strong west winds & stormy weather. Several people have said they braved the wind & weather just to be the first on the beach at high tide to see what might have washed ashore. Here is a photo from a fellow beachcomber. He found this float along the Washington coast in his "top secret" location! They found 3 that day.


Here is another photo of a float as they found it on the beach on a different day. This float was at the high tide line, along with lots of driftwood, garbage & even a shoe! These 2 photos were taken by R. Hannigen.


Another lucky beachcomber sent me the following photo. She & her daughter found these between March 27th & April 1st of this year. The large green float, known as a "garbage ball", was found out to sea just off the coast near Newport, OR. The 2 on the bottom left were found on the beach near the Peter Iredale shipwreck near Warrenton, OR. Photo by E. McMaster.


Well, I feel very fortunate that out of all the times I have gone in search of glass floats, I have always found many. The most I have ever brought home at once was just over 1,000 & we picked those up in 2 days! The sea still has millions of glass floats riding the ocean currents. And, there are still millions in Japan that sit abandoned in old gear sheds & piled up in garbage dumps.

Here are a couple of photos from a beachcombing trip near Cold Bay in May 2008. It was quite successful & most fabulous!! The photo below was actually taken in a dune behind the beach. Often the surf tosses the floats many yards off the beach. Near Cold Bay, we found a lot of floats off of the beach in various locations. I know there were many more buried in the sand, but it would take far too long to search for them all!


Mr. Brown Bear nearly stepped on this beauty! If you go beachcombing in the spring, you have to take a big gun! There are all kinds of critters running around!


I will post information soon about how to determine an authentic float from a "fake" or reproduction float. Feel free to contact me with any questions! I am always happy to share my knowledge whenever I can.

Sorting through "new" floats...

I was unable to go beachcombing recently, so I had someone pick up a few glass fishing floats off the beaches of the Aleutians over the past few weeks. I just sorted through about 250 floats. It is, by far, one of my favorite things to do. It is like opening up gifts on Christmas morning. I look at each float individually & classify them into different categories. I started listing a few in my Etsy store.

Here is a photo of them before I cleaned them & another of them sitting in the tub of water I use to clean them. I will be listing more in my store within the next few days! I found some beauties! :)