From collector to artist
Hobbyist writes book about sea glass mosaics
When Jackie Trimper was discussing plans for her new cottage with her carpenter in 2008, she mentioned wanting a stainedglass window in a wall between the living room and a bedroom. Trimper’s carpenter was her father, Louis Dalton, and he was quite aware of her large collection of sea glass. He suggested she put it to use instead of installing a stained-glass piece. And so, on her father’s suggestion, the Wolfville, N.S., resident who spends much of her summer roaming the beach beneath her Burton, P.E.I., cottage, headed down a new path as a sea glass mosaic artist. With no how-to books to turn to, it was all by trial and error starting out. Her first sea glass art creation is a test piece now permanently displayed in her parents’ cottage, just up the Burton shore from her own. Then came the nauticalthemed mosaic that fills an opening between two rooms in her cottage, and the hobby took flight. The need to fill her new interest in sea glass art has Trimper, who is also a skilled quilt artist, on the beach two to three hours a day when she’s at the cottage. The weather has to be pretty nasty, she said, for her to miss a day. “I can’t remember a time when we weren’t picking sea glass, because the beach down here is pretty good for it,” said Trimper.
She recalls searching for sea glass along the Burton shore as a child while staying at her parents’ cottage. Island beaches that have a sand and gravel mix seem to give up the greatest collection of sea glass treasures, she said, and the tidal action helps sculpt the pieces into the miniature works of art that she glues to panes of glass. “Most of the sea glass collection I have probably comes off this beach,” she says gesturing past her shore-facing windows, “but, I’m not discriminatory; if I see sea glass anywhere I will pick it up.” She even has some pieces in her collection from France and the Bahamas. “It’s hours and hours and hours of relaxation,” she describes the time that goes into creating each art piece. She creates primarily beachthemed or tree scene landscapes and many abstracts. The browns, she said, are particularly suitable for silhouettes. Browns and whites are the most common and the sea is quite generous with the greens, too. The blues, reds and yellows are rare finds. Trimper has since taken her passion for sea glass collecting to another level. Two summers ago, she decided to write about sea glass mosaics. The result is a recently published book, “Windows to the Past – Creating Sea Glass Mosaic Art.” It will be launched at the Trimpers’ cottage, 8243 Route 14 in Burton, this Saturday, June 30, at 3 p.m. There will be refreshments, question-and-answer and a draw for a free copy of the book. She’s hoping the coffee-tablestyle book, filled with stories, how-to information and 100 colour photographs, will inspire others to take on creative projects with their sea glass collections. “I just have fun with it,” she said of the art and her interest in inspiring others. “I thought, ‘there are tons of people, especially on P.E.I. who have sea glass collections and want to do something with it.’ So, I figure if I show people how to do it, they’re going to make their own thing anyway, and everyone’s sea glass is different and everyone’s ideas about what they want to create is different.” She often prepares a rough sketch of what she wants to create and, much like building a puzzle, keeps a ready supply of different sized pieces of each colour on standby to fill in her scenes.