If, like me, you love beach combing but wonder what to do with all the interesting things that you find, then maybe these items will give you some ideas.

I love sea glass, or beach glass or even mermaids tears. I love the variety of colours but I particularly love the fact that these beautiful little pieces of glass, washed up on beach around the world, have been rumbling around in the sea for years, maybe decades, maybe hundreds of years. Where did they come from, what were they when they were created in to some form of glass object, how did they come to be in the sea and how far have they travelled. These are all questions that go through my head as I’m searching beaches for these tiny beauties.

Once I get them home, I love to create coastal jewellery, particularly mixing the sea glass with pearls, swarvoski crystals and star fish!

When I first got interested in sea glass and found what stunning jewellery could be made with it, I realised I needed some tools if I was going to have a go too! I turned 40 recently and was lucky enough to be given a Dremel drill as a gift! To anyone who loves craft and making things as much I do then you will understand what a brilliant gift this was. After some research I found that diamond drill bits were the next essential item. I found a company called Eternal Tools – their diamond drill bits are fantastic and their service, second to none! Next day delivery and their prices are not bad either! They also have some great tutorials on their website showing you how to use their specialist drill bits – here is the Eternal Tools tutorial for drilling sea glass) I’m having a lot of fun drilling sea glass and have made some lovely jewellery – check it out here!

Here are some great ideas of what you can make with sea glass – here

Once I had got the hang of drilling the sea glass I moved into drilling beach stones as I wanted to make some key rings. I used a larger diamond drill bit for these – you can see my whole range of beach pebble key rings here. These were a lot of fun to make. My next step is to start engraving on them and to do this I’ve just purchased some diamond ball burrs. I’m looking forward to receiving these and having my first go at engraving!!