About Blue Water Design Studio

Owners and artists Rich & Joann Smith established Blue Water Design Studio in 2006. They have created jewelry for over two decades. Their interest in jewelry design led them to take silversmith, lapidary, and art classes which inspired a passion and delight for making one-of-a-kind, handcrafted gemstone jewelry for family and friends. Some of their handcrafted jewelry includes stone inlay, silver overlay, and various techniques with cabochons and free-formed precious and semi-precious gemstones. Over the years, their jewelry has spread across the US and overseas. Their travels has taken them to many places in the world and led them to discover many techniques for jewelry designs and beautiful gemstones.

Their passion for jewelry, art, and nature is a great combination for creating beautiful, wearable art. Several years ago they became interested in sea glass after friends asked them to design jewelry with some pieces of sea glass they found. Their passion for designing custom jewelry found a new and exciting way to express those ideas around the beauty of natural sea glass. They are constantly seeking out beautiful pieces of sea glass, colorful Dichroic glass, and other exotic gemstones to use in their designs so that they can share them with their family, friends, and customers.

Jewelry

Each piece is unique; a one-of-a-kind, handcrafted piece of fine art jewelry. Our creations come from natural sea glass, Dichroic glass, gemstones pearls, shells, and CZ’s. We use sterling silver, fine silver, and/or PMC for all our jewelry.

Sea Glass

Sea glass: Those beautiful gems that sparkle in the sunlight that has washed up on the shores of sandy and rocky beaches. These colorful gems are found in pastel shades to brilliant, dark shades transformed by the surf and sun. These sea glass colors range from common to rare. Every piece is shaped differently as it tossed and tumbled around by the waves of the sea for many years, making each piece very unique. We use natural sea glass that is collected from California, Hawaii, Washington, the Caribbean, and England.

Some sea glass is very old and some colors are very rare. It is found on many beaches around the world. These gems are from old bottles and different types of glassware brought to the sea in various ways.

The sea glass that we have observed generally falls into the following categories:

Common	Uncommon	Rare	Very Rare
Frosted White Dark Brown Amber Light Green Sea Foam Green Kelly Green Olive Green	Cobalt Blue Cornflower Blue Lime Green Aqua Turquoise	Lavender Light Blue Teal Gray Black Pink	Yellow Orange Red

Dichroic Glass

Dichroic Glass is a material that was developed by the aerospace industry. This process of creating the glass is done by applying several coats of the metal oxides to the glass in thin layers and firing in a kiln to achieve unique jewelry pieces. Each piece is different due to the mixture of the metal oxides and quartz on the glass. The colors can be vibrant, soft, or transparent and the size and shape of each piece is unique.