Many people want to make their own faux sea glass these days.  A DIY project sure beats having to spend hours looking for real sea glass even if you live close enough to a beach. 

Check out super crafter, Mark Montano's tutorial where he shows us how to safely break up an ordinary glass bottle and a porcelain plate, tumble the pieces and then drill them.  See more of his tutorials on Youtube. 

Mark's tutorial also shows how grit and ceramic pellets are used as abrasives.  His video info lists the tools he uses including where to buy the make of tumbler he uses. Rock tumblers are actually quite affordable. Mark also has an Amazon store. 

Tumbling pieces of glass or porcelain is not for the impatient because you are looking at 2-3 days of continuous tumbling to smooth out the raw edges. It's also a noisy process, so it is best done where the din will not bother anyone - a garage or unused basement is ideal. One suggestion I have seen online is to place a noisy tumbler in a cheap styrofoam box - the kind you can buy as a cooler. Make a hole for the cord to exit the box. That should somewhat muffle the noise.

If noise is a big issue, consider the National Geographic Professional Rock Tumbling Kit - one of the review videos shows how relatively quiet it is when the cover is lowered. 




I already have a Lortone tumbler that I could use. But I will need to purchase the tumbling media such as this set.  And if I do go on to do considerably more glass and porcelain tumbling, I will also need to get more grit. The slurry created with the different levels of grit has to be disposed off - see Rockhound Resource for 6 different ways to dispose of leftover slurry. 







H/T Aims of Big Blue Barn Designs for this find.

More Tutorials by Mark Montano :


jewelry making supplies

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This blog may contain affiliate links. I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation. 
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM