Artists' Biography

Michael tells us, “It all started with one shiny piece of glass in the damp sand at low tide. The color was reminiscent of an old Coke bottle and was so ‘jewel-like’. We found several more pieces on subsequent trips and they wound up as a surprise for my wife, Claudia, as a set of earrings. Others admired them, so we decided to exhibit our earrings and marine photography at the Festival by the Bay in the San Francisco Bay area. It was a huge success! We even trademarked the name, ‘Sea Glass’ in 1993.”

Michael says, “Soon after that, we bought a fixer-upper. For the next 13 years, we focused our artistic eyes on a much larger scale, remodeling, deck building and our jobs. We never gave up gathering sea glass. We would venture out during weekend mornings on a very low tide. We would pick our way down the rocks into coves off the California coast and quickly gather the glass and other treasures for the next hour or so before the tide caught us.”

Claudia tells us, “After Mike retired from UC Berkeley, I started a staging business along with my real estate business. We began to work together using our artistic abilities by fixing up houses for sale, less with paint and more by using design and furniture.”

She says, “At a retirement seminar a few years ago, I presented ideas on retirement options; such as where to go and how to get there. One of the articles was on Florence, Oregon. A few years ago, on our way to visit the grandkids in Washington, we detoured to the coast and fell in love with Florence. It was the bridge and the view of Old Town that did it! We came back up that next weekend, bought a house, sold our house and moved to Florence.”

They brought all of their sea glass with them, of course. Now Michael, with his talented fingers (13 years with IBM fixing typewriters) and Claudia who is finally getting time to use her design courses she loved at UCLA, are back to creating SEA GLASS JEWELRY.