Beach Bling

You’ve always been a little jealous of your auntie’s calabash of shining glass fishing floats. But to score your own prized bowlful you’d have to spend the next 30 years combing the sand at dawn.

Forget the wait (and the dawn patrol) and start showing off your own unique beach glass bling now—only adorning you instead of your coffee table.

Former entertainers turned beach glass collectors and jewelers, Gene Allen and Rex Nockengust have been walking the beach at least three hours every day for the past eight years to find their glass gems—bits of misty white and colored beach glass brushed clean and smoothed by the sea. After perfecting their drilling technique, they began handcrafting innovative rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets, punctuating sterling silver, gold, and leather with beach glass and semi-precious stones.

The resulting line of striking fashion and high-end jewelry elevates the everyday into something beautiful and unexpected, and each piece purchased here is made with glass from O‘ahu’s beaches.

So even though you didn’t exactly dig for these treasures yourself, you can still tell your auntie you’re wearing the real thing.

Available at Island Treasures in Kailua , Global Creations in Haleiwa, Martin and MacArthur and Nohea Gallery on O‘ahu, and other locations statewide. See designs and location list at www.beachglassbingo.net