International Sea Glass Association Festival

2023 Sea Glass Festival

The International Sea Glass Association invites you to the 17th Annual Festival on the Village Green of the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut. The Festival will take place on Saturday and Sunday, July 29–30, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The International Sea Glass Festival is the premier sea and beach glass event in the country celebrating the history and beauty of genuine sea and beach glass.    

A summer visit to the nation’s number one maritime museum, talented artists and jewelers, knowledgeable speakers, the sea glass contest, and an opportunity to connect with fellow sea glass enthusiasts will make for an unforgettable weekend.

Tickets

General Admission Tickets to Mystic Seaport Museum cover admission to the Festival for two days. Your one-day ticket can be validated for a second day. Your ticket gives you admission to both days of the festival, lectures, and the Sea Glass Contest, as well as the Mystic Seaport Museum grounds. You can purchase tickets on the day of the festival at the Museum or purchase tickets online using the link below.

Purchase Festival Tickets
Adult $28 | Senior 65+ $26 | Youth 13-17 $24 | Child 4-12 $19 | 0-3 free.

FREE parking is available in the lots across the street. The South Entrance is closest to the Festival.

Lectures • Exhibitors • Jewelry • Décor • Art • Sea Glass Contest

2023 Festival Schedule

Join us for a weekend of sea and beach glass! All times are tentative. Professional and Community Members will be emailed with details about the festival weekend meetups and events. All dates/times are subject to change.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

10 am Festival Opens
11:30 am Presentation: Zen Sea Glassing, Guy Fleming
2 pm Presentation: A History of Maritime Mystic, Rich Froh
5 pm Festival Closes for the day

Cocktail reception and meeting for ISGA Professional Members, Community Members, and Volunteers. Details coming soon.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

10 am Festival Opens
11 am Presentation: Sailing for Sea Glass, Ky Davis
1 pm Sea Glass Contest Entries Close
2 pm Presentation: New England Sea Glass Stories, Roxie Zwicker
3 pm Sea Glass Contest Awards
5 pm Festival Closes. See you next year!

Vendors

We are proud to announce the line up of 2023 Sea Glass Festival Vendors.

Acorn Beach Glass and Artistry • Beach Baubles • Beach Glass Bingo • Beachcombing Magazine • Bead Boutique • Bling Beach Glass Windows • Cape Cod Gypsea • DMG Creations • Erie Hound Dogs • Frosted Trash • funky bijoux • Gull Cottage Crafts • Heart to Heart Designs • HKM Jewelry • HL Sea and Beach Glass • Kate Samson Design • Lovely Glassworks • Marooned Crab Creations • New Beginnings Sea Glass • Ocean Sea Glass Creations • Rainbow by the Sea Jewelry Designs • Rubtoys sea glass • Sea Glass and Shore • Sea Glass Compositions • Sea Glass Designs • Sea Glass Heart Art • Sea Glass Jewelry by Nora • Sea Glass Journal • Sea Shimmer • Sea Witch Jewlz • Sharon Brubaker, Author • Silver Coqui Sea Glass • Skeezel Press • Stacey’s Sea Glass Shop • ST Beach Finds • Still Waters USA • Surfside Sea Glass Jewelry • The Sea Glass Grotto

We look forward to seeing the beautiful work they share at this premier sea glass event in the nation. List of vendors subject to change. Please check vendor websites for final confirmation.

Please ask vendors before you photograph or film their booths and/or their work. Thanks!

Learn more about this year’s vendors ›

Presenters

Join us for educational presentations about sea and beach glass, local coastal information, and more. These presentations will take place in the historic 1850s Meeting House, part of Mystic Seaport Museum’s seaport village. This bustling village was recreated with trade shops, businesses, and buildings that were transported to the museum grounds.

Sailing for Sea Glass

Sunday, July 23, 2023, 11:00 am

Ky Davis

Captain Ky Davis lives on a Ta Yang (Tayana) 50′ Flying Dutchman sailboat and travels the Caribbean in search of rare sea glass. Ky will share some of his experiences hunting for sea glass on beaches, in underwater caves, and down cliff sides, where he finds beautiful, rare sea glass and more. You’ll get a peek at his life living on his sailboat as he travels the seas to find untouched sea glass beaches.

Captain Ky the Sea Glass Guy from LC’s Glass is a treasure hunter circumnavigating the world on his sailboat, The Emerald of Pleiades, with his Yorkshire Terrier, LC, in search of the world’s greatest unknown sea glass beaches. He has spent time as a firefighter, combat medic, explorer, adventurer, survivalist, farmer, and ship captain. Find Ky on Instagram @suns_out_tonguesout, on Facebook at @SunsOutTonguesOut, and on YouTube at The Bored Pirate. 

Zen Sea Glassing

Saturday, July 29, 2023, 11:30 am

Guy Fleming

In a lifetime, change may occur quickly and sometimes very unexpectedly. After Guy lost all his worldly possessions in the severe Superstorm Sandy of 2012, he faced  another tragedy when he divorced shortly afterward. Searching for solace and new beginning in life, he began walking beach, discovering sea glass and an improved quality of life. Guy will share personal stories, Zen techniques and important ways to become an environmental steward.

Guy Cash Fleming has been expressing himself creatively ever since he sat down with a bass guitar as a teenager. He spent 34 years working as a chemical operator and instrumentation technician for a major pharmaceutical company, and he is also a musician, photographer, and amateur sea glass jeweler. Although he thought he’d never write a book, six months into retirement he suddenly had the urge and honored it wholeheartedly, with the release of For the Love of Sea Glass. Since then he’s walked more than 10,000 miles on the beaches of New Jersey, found in excess of 200,000 pieces of sea glass, and wrote two additional books, entitled Sea Glass for Miles, (a sea glass color/rarity guide), and Sea Glass Stories from the Beautiful New Jersey Coast, a coffee table book. Guy lives in New Jersey with his wife Yolanda, also an author, and their two young adult children.

A History of Maritime Mystic

Saturday, July 29, 2023, 2:00 p.m.

Rich Froh

Mystic has long been a major hub of the seafaring world, playing host to shipbuilding, fishing, global trade, naval warfare, and everything in between. Come learn about our rich local history, and discover what makes Mystic such a special place.

Richard (Rich) Froh has spent his life exploring local waters and waterfronts and feeding his hunger for history, especially local and maritime histories. With his wife, June, Rich has traveled to many historic sites in the U.S. and Europe, but his appreciation for the history of the Mystic River area and Mystic’s connection to national and world events remains the center of his focus and passion. His full-time job at the Museum allows him to, as he puts it, “de-mystify Mystic” by helping history buffs and those less familiar with our past, appreciate what has happened on these grounds and the surrounding waters.

New England Sea Glass Stories

Sunday, July 30, 2023, 2:00 p.m.

Roxie Zwicker

It’s hard to resist the lure of beachcombing in New England, with tales of shipwrecks and pirates dating back to the 17th century, where there are places to walk the beach and find relics of the past with stories to tell. Roxie has amassed a collection of over 4,000 beach finds, with some dating back to the 17th century. With a focus on Boston, Cape Cod, and the coast of New Hampshire she will share dramatic stories, images of her collection, and a virtual tour of her favorite spots.

New England’s Mystery Maven, Roxie Zwicker has been entertaining the locals, visitors from away, and curious souls since 1994. Her company New England Curiosities, located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has been offering award winning tours, presentations, and special events since 2002 based on New England folklore and mysterious history. Roxie’s TV appearances include New Hampshire Chronicle, New England Cable News, The History Channel, and the Travel Channel. Roxie is a published author of eight books that delve into the region’s history, legends, and lore, and her next book has a focus on New England sea glass. Wicked Curious Radio is Roxie’s podcast available on all major podcast platforms. Her extensive collection of sea glass takes up an entire room in her house and her website can be found at newenglandcuriosities.com.

List of speakers subject to change. Speakers may appear in person or via Zoom where circumstances dictate.

Sea Glass Contest

Think you found the best marble, bottle stopper, whimsical toy, frosted bottle, historical, or other amazing beach treasure this year? Be sure to bring your stash of finds and enter to win cash prizes during the 17th Annual Sea Glass Contest. The International Sea Glass Association invites collectors to enter their favorite sea and beach glass finds in the Sea Glass Contest.

Our judges will award winners in the following categories:

  • Find of the Year
  • Frosted Bottles
  • Pottery/Ceramics
  • Whimsical/Toys
  • Bottle Stopper
  • Most Unusual
  • Historical
  • Art Glass
  • Marbles
  • Buttons/Beads
  • Figural
  • Vendor Entry

Guidelines:

  • Entry cards will be sold at the show on Saturday and Sunday.
  • 3 entries per card: $5 per card
  • Indicate the body of water where the piece was found. 
  • Enter your pieces on Sunday before 1:00 pm.
  • Each entry must be authentic, unaltered, and found in the body of water named on your entry card.
  • You or someone in your immediate family must have found the item. No purchased items allowed.
  • Announcement of winners will take place on Sunday afternoon.

Prizes:

Winners of the Sea Glass Contest will take home cash prizes ($250 for Find of the Year winner and $50 for winner in each category) and their pieces will be featured in Beachcombing Magazine. See photos from past festivals › Good luck!

Judges reserve the right to award multiple winners in a single category, omit awarding winners in every category, and award winners in categories not listed above.

Thanks to our generous sponsors and partners:

Captain:

Partners:

Collectors Showcase

Thanks to everyone who has applied to be in the Collectors Showcase this year. We will contact you if you are selected to be part of this year’s festival.

Volunteers

The International Sea Glass Association would like to thank all those who offered to be volunteers at the festival. With an overwhelming response, our volunteer positions are full for the weekend; however, we hope you can visit the festival, enjoy the program and vendors, and consider becoming a Community Member. Learn more online and at the festival.

Make it a destination weekend

Mystic Seaport Museum

Mystic Seaport Museum is the nation’s leading maritime museum. Founded in 1929 to gather and preserve the rapidly disappearing artifacts of America’s seafaring past, the Museum has grown to become a national center for research and education with the mission to “inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.”

Your ticket lets you visit the Mystic Seaport Museum grounds, including world-class exhibits such as Voyaging in the Wake of the Whalers, Figureheads, Sea as Muse, and much more. Other attractions at Mystic Seaport include free planetarium shows, the Children’s Museum, the Homeport Family Activity Center, and access to the Charles W. Morgan — the world’s last authentic wooden whaling ship.

The Mystic Seaport Museum grounds cover 19 acres on the Mystic River in Mystic, Connecticut, and include a recreated New England coastal village, a working shipyard, formal exhibit halls, and state-of-the-art artifact storage facilities. The Museum is home to more than 500 historic watercraft, including four National Historic Landmark vessels, most notably the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship still in existence.

Learn more about Mystic Seaport Museum ›

Mystic, Connecticut

If you are looking to escape for a getaway this summer, Mystic, Connecticut is the perfect quintessential New England vacation destination. Nestled halfway between New York and Boston and accessible via Amtrak, Mystic is the perfect getaway. Settled in 1654, Mystic was once a shipbuilding seaport village. Today, the shoreline community has quintessential New England charm, where historical sea captain’s homes line the river and shops and eateries line Main street. Visitors can enjoy shopping, art galleries, Mystic Seaport, Mystic Aquarium, Denison Homestead, Mystic Museum of Art, and Olde Mistick Village. Learn more about visiting Mystic ›

The International Sea Glass Association reserves the right to cancel the festival in the event of extreme weather.