Upload a photo. Find out what colour you’ve found, how rare it is in Britain, and what it may have been 50, 100 or even 150 years ago.
Identify My Sea Glass:
GlassLore — Sea Glass Identifier
What was your sea glass before it became sea glass?
Found something interesting on the beach?
Upload a photo, and GlassLore will identify its colour, tell you how rare that colour is on UK beaches, and suggest what the piece most likely started life as before years in the sea changed it.
Identify my sea glass →
Free to use. No account needed.
GlassLore is built specifically for UK sea glass hunters.
That matters because sea glass rarity is local. A colour that is extremely rare on one coastline can be much easier to find near an old glassworks, bottle factory or industrial dumping site.
Most online colour charts are based on American or Mediterranean finds. GlassLore uses a UK-focused rarity scale based on the kinds of glass that actually turn up on British beaches.
What GlassLore can tell you
Upload a clear photograph, and GlassLore will analyse four things.
Colour
From everyday kelp green and brown to cobalt, lavender, citron, turquoise, red and the colours most hunters may search years to find.
UK Rarity
See where your piece sits on the UK rarity scale and how unusual that colour is compared with typical British beach finds.
Likely Origin
GlassLore uses colour, thickness, curvature and shape to suggest what your piece may once have been.
Possible origins include:
Beer or wine bottles, medicine phials, poison bottles, Codd bottle marbles, window glass, Victorian ink wells, tableware and industrial waste glass.
Sometimes a small shard can tell more of a story than you might expect.
Condition
Find out whether your piece looks properly sea-finished, with softened edges and a mature frosted surface, or whether it may need more time in the water.
How to photograph your sea glass
For the best identification, photograph the piece on a plain background in natural, indirect daylight.
A windowsill on an overcast day is close to ideal.
Avoid direct sunlight, which can wash out the colour, and indoor lighting, which can make glass appear warmer than it really is.
Wet glass can make colour easier to see, although it will also make the surface look less frosted.
Once you upload the image, GlassLore analyses the piece and returns its likely colour, UK rarity, possible origin and condition.
Upload a piece →
UK sea glass colour rarity
Everyday finds
White and clear · Kelp green · Brown
These make up the bulk of what most hunters find on UK beaches.
Much of it comes from beer, wine, spirits, and household bottles produced during the last century.
Regular finds
Soft green · Amber · Olive
Common enough that a productive beach session may turn up several.
Uncommon
Forest green · Soft blue · Lime · Amberina
The sort of colours that make you look twice.
They are often associated with older bottles, less common glass production or pieces that have spent a long time in the sea.
Rare
Aqua · Cobalt blue · Milk glass · Lavender · Citron · Teal
These are the finds that can make a trip.
Cobalt glass was commonly used for medicine and chemical bottles.
Lavender glass can begin as clear glass containing manganese and gradually develop a purple tint after long exposure to ultraviolet light.
Very rare
Red · Orange · Yellow · Turquoise · Grey · Black
These are genuine pocket-stoppers.
Orange is often cited as one of the rarest sea glass colours.
Red glass was produced in far smaller quantities than ordinary bottle glass and was used for things such as decorative glass, lamps and vehicle lenses.
Finding one can be the sort of moment a hunter remembers for years.
Seaham specials
Some pieces do not fit neatly onto an ordinary colour chart.
Former glassmaking areas can produce multi-coloured waste glass, unusual blends and sea glass marbles that are extremely difficult to find elsewhere.
Seaham is especially famous for them.
If GlassLore identifies your piece as a multi, you may have found something genuinely unusual.
Sea glass rarity is local
A colour can be exceptionally rare in Cornwall and comparatively regular on a former industrial coastline.
Why?
Because beaches inherit the history around them.
Old bottle works, glass factories, harbours, shipyards and dumping sites all changed the kinds of glass that entered the sea.
That is why GlassLore does not treat rarity as universal.
Our beach guides focus on what hunters actually find at individual locations, rather than assuming every British beach produces the same glass.
Browse UK beach guides →
See the full colour guide →
Open the sea glass glossary →
Build your collection
Found something worth keeping?
Add it to the GlassLore Finds gallery, tag the beach where you discovered it and start building a record of your finds.
Approved finds earn hunter points towards the rankings.
Over time, your collection becomes more than a box of glass.
It becomes a record of where you searched, what you found and which colours you managed to uncover.
What is my sea glass worth?
GlassLore does not value individual finds, just a guide.
And there is a good reason for that.
Sea glass prices vary enormously, and online asking prices often tell you more about the seller than the true market value of the glass.
GlassLore may show comparable eBay listings for context, but these are asking prices rather than confirmed sale prices and should not be treated as valuations.
What matters far more is the combination of:
Colour, condition, size, thickness and shape.
A fully frosted, jewellery-grade cobalt piece with smooth edges can be considerably more desirable than a chipped or unfinished piece of the same colour.
If you are curious about value, the condition of your piece is often more useful than a single price estimate.
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify sea glass from a photo?
Photograph the piece on a plain background in indirect natural daylight and upload it to GlassLore.
Colour is the main clue, followed by thickness, curvature, shape and the character of the frosted surface.
Is it real sea glass or craft glass?
Naturally weathered sea glass usually has softened edges and an irregular matte surface, including wear inside pits and small hollows.
Machine-tumbled craft glass can reproduce some of these characteristics, so photographs can provide useful clues but may not always prove a piece’s origin with certainty.
Very uniform shapes, glossy flat areas or unusually perfect finishes can be signs that a piece has been artificially tumbled.
What is the rarest sea glass colour in the UK?
Orange is generally considered one of the rarest colours, alongside red, turquoise and yellow.
All were produced in far smaller quantities than common bottle colours such as clear, green and brown.
Why is my clear glass turning purple?
Some older clear glass was made using manganese as a decolourising agent.
Long exposure to ultraviolet light can gradually give this glass a lavender or purple tint.
That means a lavender piece may be considerably older than it first appears.
How long does sea glass take to form?
There is no single answer.
The process can take decades, and the speed depends heavily on local conditions.
A rough pebble beach with strong wave action can weather glass much faster than a sheltered sandy beach.
Can I add my find to the gallery?
Yes.
Tag the beach where you found it and submit it to the Finds gallery.
Once approved, it will appear in the gallery and earn hunter points towards the rankings.
Is GlassLore free?
Yes.
You can identify a piece without creating an account.
You only need to sign up if you want to submit finds to the gallery, save your discoveries and collect hunter points.
Got a piece you cannot identify?
Upload it and see what the sea left behind.