Hudson River Sea Glass jewelry – ‘something the river made’

View more images on our Flickr site

Pamela Gorman wears one of her Hudson River Sea Glass jewelry designs as she collects pieces of glass from the shoreline.

The way Pamela Gorman sees it, the Hudson regularly washes up gems.

She collects “sea glass” along the beaches on the Hudson in Rockland County, searching the sand for polished bits of glass – aqua, green, brown and white, sometimes a rarer shade of cobalt blue, teal, red or lavender. She then starts imagining how to turn it into a necklace or a pair of earrings. What began as a childhood collecting habit has turned into a jewelry venture, Hudson River Sea Glass – a company she created at age 17.

The 21-year-old artist makes jewelry out of each piece as she finds it, inspired by the knowledge that each bit of glass spent decades tumbling around in the river.

“That’s what makes it unique,” she says. “I don’t think it’s necessary to alter it. It’s not just human-made, or store-bought. It’s something the river made.”

Gorman sells her simple and beautiful jewelry through her website and Etsy. She also sells at local festivals, to people who are delighted to learn that the sea glass came from the river, not the ocean.

Hudson River Sea Glass channels Gorman’s love for the river, her talent for design, and her studies in international trade and marketing at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she is a full-time student. Through her business, she wants to spread awareness “that the river really needs help.”

This year, she decided to donate 5 percent of her sales to Riverkeeper, to help further its work to clean and restore the Hudson.

“It was a way to give back,” she says. “I wouldn’t have my business without the river. I know it needs a lot of work to clean up. And I’ve always wanted to do something to give back to it.”