3rd Annual Santa Barbara Sea Glass and Ocean Arts Festival

There are less than TWO weeks until the 3rd Annual Santa Barbara Sea Glass and Ocean Arts Festival at the Earl Warren Showgrounds.

It is the only festival of its kind in Southern California – and one of three on the west coast. With handmade sea glass jewelry and ocean-themed art, the Santa Barbara Sea Glass & Ocean Arts Festival features work created by dozens of talented artists from all across the country, bringing thousands of sea glass and beach enthusiasts to the renowned coastal jewel of Santa Barbara, California.

You can learn from three lecturers this year! These lectures are free with your SBSGOA Festival entry fee which is still only $5.00 per day or $9.00 for both days. Early bird shopping starts at 9am and is $15.00 for entry. Make it a day. Come early to shop, stay for the education!!

Avoid the lines and buy your tickets online.

We have Richard LaMotte, Mary McCarthy, and Josie Iselin all lined up to give us lots of sea glass and ocean related information on both days.

Richard LaMotte is the author of the award-winning book, Pure SEA GLASS and a recent sequel titled The Lure of Sea Glass. He was a co-founder and past-president of the North American Sea Glass Association.  He and his wife Nancy started a Chesapeake Bay sea glass collection for her jewelry business in 1999. In 2002, he began researching glass history for a lecture which led to extensive research into glass colors, as well as the physics and chemistry behind the frosted glass forms found along the shoreline. In 2006, Pure Sea Glass was awarded first place for non-fiction in Writer’s Digest 13th Annual Self-Published Book Competition.  Richard and his book have been featured in The Washington Post, on Martha Stewart Living TV, Coastal Living, Parade Magazine, Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, Delaware Beach Life, on NPR and Maryland Public Television.

Richard will lecture at the festival on the topic: “Sea Glass Identification and Dating“.

Mary McCarthy is a bestselling author and founder of SeaCrate ocean-themed subscription-box service. As a lifelong journalist, she has written for Katie Couric and has appeared on The Today Show, Huffington Post Live and ABC TV news. An instructor for The Writer’s Center in Washington, D.C., Mary is also a columnist and Contributing Editor for Glassing magazine. She is a board member and Education Chair for the North American Sea Glass Association. A mother of four, she enjoys kayaking and sea glass hunting on the Chesapeake Bay. At the educational table exhibit this year you will find: UV sea glass, sea marbles from around the world, and sea glass samples from the Chesapeake Bay, California, Japan, England, Italy and Dead Horse Bay in New York.

Mary McCarthy will be lecturing both days, and her topics are: “Beachcombing and History at Dead Horse Bay” (It is like Fort Bragg, where beachcombing is prohibited, but there is so much broken glass and trash there.) What are the ethical beachcombing issues involved in sites like this and Fort Bragg, California? She will also talk about “Fake, Genuine, and Seeded Sea Glass.”  This lecture explores ways to tell the differences between genuine sea, fake, and seeded sea glass, including an exhibit of sample fakes.

Josie Iselin is the photographer, author and designer of seven books on forms in nature and particularly what we find at the beach. These titles include Beach: A Book of Treasure, Sea Glass Hearts and An Ocean Garden. She will talk about how she builds her books in her studio, how seaweed could be the new sea glass, and introduce spectacular images of a few iconic California seaweeds. She is writing a new book on seaweed and will talk about the challenge of evoking our ocean tidal ecosystems in a scientifically correct but lyrical way.

Josie holds a BA in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and an MFA from San Francisco State University. For almost twenty years, Josie has used her flatbed scanner and computer exclusively for generating imagery. She is still captivated by the fluidity with which this technique allows her to render and design with three-dimensional objects. As a fine artist, Josie exhibits large-scale prints at select galleries and museums. She hopes that celebrating the ordinary wonders we find at the beach will bring thoughtfulness and stewardship to this extraordinary place of discovery.

Josie will be lecturing both days on: “Seaweed Sea Otters, Urchins and Kelp: The Interconnectedness of Life in Our California Coastal Waters”.

The Santa Barbara Sea Glass and Ocean Arts Festival is an annual event that brings artisans from around the country to The Earl Warren Showgrounds the second weekend in September all because of sea glass!  It is the only festival of its kind in Southern California and one of only three on the west coast–featuring handmade, ocean-themed, and genuine sea glass art and jewelry. The SBSGOAF committee looked to the local high school community this year for their t-shirt design. In the past, an adult graphic artist was hired for their collector tees. After a community-wide contest, we are proud to announce that Jena Carrisosa of SBHS’s VADA has been chosen the winner. Her design will be featured on our t-shirt and she and her VADA teacher, Nicole Barr each received a $300.00 cash prize.

            The Santa Barbara Sea Glass and Ocean Arts Festival already pairs with Explore Ecology. SBSGOAF’s Art Director, Karen Clark, was looking for another way to give back to the community and decided to reach out to the local high school students. As artists, we feel it is important to support other artists and this year’s result is incredible!

            The 17-year-old member of Santa Barbara High School’s VADA (Visual Arts and Design Academy) has created a merman, named “Mercello”. As a lifelong Santa Barbara resident, her incorporation of the S for Santa Barbara in his body curve, the thoughtful, creative color choices and her design stood out as a top contender right away. In her bio she wrote, “Art is a crucial part of my life and who I am as a person, and I hope to be able to support myself in a creative workplace in the future so that I may be happy doing something that I love.”