Identifying Sea Glass Marbles at the American Toy Marble Museum!

What fun it was to get together with Michael Cohill of the American Toy Marble Museum this past weekend! A man with a passion for marbles meets up with a woman with a passion for Sea Glass marbles!



In the years that I have been collecting sea glass it is always most pleasurable to find out the history of a piece. The mystery that exists when finding a piece of sea glass leads to the excitement of a possible journey. I have many sea glass marbles that I have collected through out the years and was just waiting for the chance to meet someone who would be able to help me identify them.



So, I found Michael Cohill! I can't really give the experiance justice by retelling it. It is something you would have to experiance yourself. But, Michael helped me identify a yellow Akro Agate Co. marble with a cork screw shape inside,
what is called a "Girl Scout" marble due to its green and yellow color, several opaque pieces which he believes were "game piece" marbles, and a highly desireable "chalky"!

Picking this fella's brain was a lot of fun and I am truly hoping that he will be a guest speaker at the next North American Sea Glass Festival that will be held in Erie, Pa. October 17th-18th 2009. He would have an excellant display of marbles, would contribute much knowledge on the area's marble history, and may even have a kids interactive area where they could learn how to shoot marbles! To learn more about the museum, please visit their site here!

Thank you, Michael, for all your help and I look forward to my next visit with you soon!
Jodie~LEbg
Lake Erie Beach Glass

HAPPY ANNIVERSAY 50's Pin Up LEbg Style!

Finding the perfect anniversary gift for my husband always seems to be such a challenge! Most items he ever mentions liking, he ends up purchasing for himself. When you ask him what he would like, or course he will say "Hon, you don't have to get me anything at all!" . So, I've been watching him closely and we both like art deco, the era of the 40's and 50's, and particularly those pin up ads right around WWII. So, I decided that I would get some pictures done of me with a 50's pin up look. That was a lot easier to think of than it was to orchestrate the whole ordeal. Geesh!

So, I called on my good friend Kathy Paton, better known as SMASHING on Etsy. Kathy is a fellow metalsmith artist and photographer. We set up a day and time and I got busy looking for vintage clothing appropriate to the era. I found some AWESOME finds at a local second hand store called The Sassy Peacock. I spent under $80.00 and came home with several beautiful outfits that I know I will wear again. Then, I came across some "kickin" high heeled saddle shoes at a thrift store for only $3.00. I can't believe they fit! All I needed where a few accessories including some beautiful fascinator combs from BORING SYDNEY off of Etsy, and schedule my hair and makeup appointment.

I found a fun and friendly hair stylist at the JC Penny hair salon in Erie by the name of Amanda. We did a mock up hair style and scheduled the "real deal" look for Saturday morning the 10th of January. My friend Nicki, HANDMADE, helped me secure a MAC makeup artist at the Crocker Park Mall in Cleveland.



In the mean time, I was also invited to attend the local Pittsburgh Belly Dancing performance the very same evening as a vendor. Now the day was REALLY jammed pack!

Saturday came and there were snow warnings all over Pa. and Ohio! I had to go, so I set out for my hair appt. first. Amanda did a wonderful job and I traded some jewelry work as part of my tip. Take a look at her beautiful bracelet! :0)




Off to Cleveland for makeup and a photo shoot! The roads were terrible and it took me nearly 3 hours to get to the appt. Now I was late! We finished makeup and I headed over to the photo shoot. By the time we were finished and reviewed some of the pictures it was already 5:30pm. The Belly Dancing Performance was to start at 6:00! Thank you Andrew and Jennifer (husband and sister-in-law) for taking my wares to the show, for setting up, and for manning the table until I got there! I took me 2 1/2 hours to get back home and to the show. What a day! But, it was all worth it because in the end, my pictures turned out really fun and cool and my husband was ecstatic! :0)
I owe a BIG THANK YOU to all of the people who where involved in helping put this together! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Jodie