Picture this: It’s late winter, or early spring and New Brunswick’s spectacular Bay of Chaleur is rimmed with ice and snow, except for a few patches of bare sand. But that’s all it takes. Sonia Turner is back on the beach, her eyes scanning those small, bare patches, her hands turning over sticks and stones. Her never-ending search for sea glass or “ocean gems” as she likes to call them, is on again for another year.
“I could go out everyday,” says Sonia. “It’s the anticipation that gets me going so early in the season. I’ve just got to see what is out there.” Sonia is clearly in love with the brilliantly coloured ocean gems that Mother Nature creates from the castaways washed up by the ocean tides. She wasn’t always this way; in fact, before moving to Bathurst with her husband Doug, Sonia hadn’t even heard of sea glass.
That all changed the first time Doug and Sonia walked the long stretch of sand at Youghall Beach near their Bathurst home. She couldn’t believe all the polished glass she saw. She started pocketing a few of the prettier pieces and before long, five large jars were full. It was Doug who noticed that she was becoming a wee bit obsessive about getting to the beach. As Sonia says, “It would almost take a gale to keep me away.” So Doug asked, “What are you going to do with all this glass?” Sonia headed for the Internet and it wasn’t long before an amateur archeologist was born and a passionate jewelry maker.
Stop by for a chat at the Bathurst Farmer’s Market, or drop by her studio and you will soon discover what all the brilliant glass once was and what it can be.
As passionate as Sonia is about the sea glass itself, it is in the studio where her creative spirit shines through. Sonia turns her ocean gems into sparkling jewelry: necklaces, earrings and bracelets - she even formed a bejeweled crown for the Queen of the Sea-Glass Festival.
Sonia’s passion for beach glass is infectious. More and more people are out searching the nearby beaches and that means less treasure than before. Mother Nature isn’t making as much as she used to either - not like in those faraway days when people thought nothing of tossing their old bottles into the deep blue sea. Still, that hasn’t slowed Sonia down. Keeping her eyes on tide tables and lunar calendars, she has a keen appreciation for a good storm blowing her way.
Yes, Sonia is obsessed by sea glass. But why not? She gets to be both an archeologist exploring the origins of her treasured glass, and when the winds force her inside, she becomes a jeweler transforming it into works of art. A nice combination if ever there was one.
Sonia Turner
410 Densmore St.
Bathurst
506- 547-1887