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Her beachcombing hobby turned into a 30,000-piece collection

Published 1:30 am Saturday, August 4, 2018

By Evan Thompson

The painting in Linda Smith’s den, painted by a family friend in the ’70s, is of the beach on Samish Island where Smith’s grandmother taught her how to look for “things that capture light.” The artistic poster (right) from the Sea Glass Festival in Santa Cruz reminds her how she fell in love with Monterey Bay when she first displayed her wares at the event. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
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The painting in Linda Smith’s den, painted by a family friend in the ’70s, is of the beach on Samish Island where Smith’s grandmother taught her how to look for “things that capture light.” The artistic poster (right) from the Sea Glass Festival in Santa Cruz reminds her how she fell in love with Monterey Bay when she first displayed her wares at the event. (Dan Bates / The Herald)

The painting in Linda Smith’s den, painted by a family friend in the ’70s, is of the beach on Samish Island where Smith’s grandmother taught her how to look for “things that capture light.” The artistic poster (right) from the Sea Glass Festival in Santa Cruz reminds her how she fell in love with Monterey Bay when she first displayed her wares at the event. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
The painting in Linda Smith’s den, painted by a family friend in the ’70s, is of the beach on Samish Island where Smith’s grandmother taught her how to look for “things that capture light.” The artistic poster (right) from the Sea Glass Festival in Santa Cruz reminds her how she fell in love with Monterey Bay when she first displayed her wares at the event. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
Linda Smith has created some unique displays with her collection of seaglass, including this magical arrangement that produces colorful duality with morning light and a mirror. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
A pink piece of seaglass is given a prominent spot among the other colors of seaglass in a glass container on the window sill of Smith’s special room. On a different day, however, it may be off catching light in a different spot. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
In Linda Smith’s seaglass arrangements, it almost looks as if they are tiny fish, birds and seals. (Dan Bates / The Herald)
Photos by Dan Bates / The Herald On a window sill in Linda Smith’s room, seaglass is displayed in clear glass with early morning light brushing the tops.

A special room in Linda Smith’s house reflects what she believes to be the perfect beach — and that isn’t what you’d expect.

Forget the golden sands on the coasts of Hawaii or Florida. The Everett resident prefers a beach closer to home where she can search for sea glass: West Beach, near Deception Pass on Whidbey Island.

“I visited three weeks ago early in the morning, and it was just glorious,” Smith said. “The water was flat. You could see the Olympics and all the way to Victoria (British Columbia), and the colors were clear. It smelled good.”

Smith, 71, has been collecting sea glass for about 40 years — about the same length of time it takes for sea glass to acquire its smooth, rounded and frosted appearance from weathering in saltwater.

A teacher for the Marysville School District for 33 years, Smith comes from a family of beachcombers. Her grandmothers taught her how to find agates and seashells on Salish Sea beaches when she was a kid.

Eventually, she stumbled on to sea glass.

“It just sort of evolved,” Smith said.

In all, she has about 30,000 pieces in her collection. Though sea glass is often made into jewelry, Smith collects the pieces mostly for decorative purposes. Her best pieces are arranged by color, shape and condition on a window sill in the den of her Everett home. When the morning sun reaches the window, the sea glass reflects the light, creating beautiful hues.

She keeps her most precious sea glass in storage.

“I have a glass box that has all the colors of the rainbow,” Smith said. “Red glass is the most rare. It is very striking. People notice it when they come into the room.”

“I only probably have about 60 pieces of red out of my 30,000.”

She’s shown her best pieces at national conventions and festivals, including the Mid-Atlantic Sea Glass & Coastal Arts Festival in Lewes, Delaware, and the North American Sea Glass Festival in Wildwood, New Jersey. She says they’re a great way to meet other sea-glass enthusiasts.

The majority of her collection — many of them a light aqua color — is from the Puget Sound area. Some have origins in Alaska and Vancouver Island, B.C., while others were found as far away as France and Australia.

When she and her husband, Lloyd, travel, they like to go where there’s water and rocky beaches.

“My favorite sea glass are ones that have a story to go with them,” Smith said.

She considers herself lucky to live so close to a “mecca of sea glass.” Besides West Beach, Smith also scours the beaches near Clinton.

“I go around to any beach that has a lot of rocks and a lot of wave action,” Smith said. “It’s a better opportunity to find sea glass.”

It’s important to Smith that sea-glass collecting remains a hobby and not an obsession. Finding it can be tricky, and she used to get anxious about it. Pausing to take in the sights, sounds and smells of the beach helps ease the tension.

“You have to enjoy the whole thing, not just the sea glass,” Smith said. “That’s just a side benefit.”

Evan Thompson: 360-544-2999 or ethompson@heraldnet.com.

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