The Sea Glass Shard of the Month: November 2015
Forrest Green Sea Glass Kickup
Sea Glass Specifications:
Color: Forrest Green
Max Length: 41.4 mm (1.63")
Max Width: 28.7 mm (1.13")
Max Thickness: 14.2 mm (0.56")
Weight: 23.4 grams (0.83 oz)
Estimated Age: Undetermined. Believed to have been before the 1920s.
This month we're featuring a dark green sea glass shard that can be highly desirable due to its unusual, half-domed shaped. In the sea glass collecting community this type of beach bauble is referred to as a kick-up or push-up.
Actually, what sea glass collectors are finding is just the top end of a kick-up and is technically known as a mamelon: a rounded eminence or a small circular protrusion.
The term kick-up, or push-up, comes from the early days of bottle making when glassblowers physically pushed upwards in the center part of the bottom of a bottle while the glass was still in a molten state. This was usually performed using a metal rod that had various head shapes. The half-domed shaped that sea glass collectors are finding is from a type of rod that had a concave head.
A kick-up is a steep rise or pushed-up portion of the base of a bottle.
"...this is the top end of a kick-up and is technically known as a mamelon..."
There are many reasons why glassblowers added the kick-up including strength enhancing of the bottle bottom, stability, and possibly content sedimentation. This type of bottle bottom generally used on champagne and wine bottles.
Because wine bottles are the most common source of kick-ups they are usually dark green but may also be found in a wide range of colors such as white, brown, seafoam and even in the electric green-yellow of uranium glass.
As with the featured shard this type of sea glass will often include remnants of the steep sides of the kick-up which can make the shard look like a hat. Other times the kick-up will only include the mamelon and may look like a gumdrop. Either way they are a fascinating and fun addition to a sea glass enthusiast's collection.
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