Dec. 21, 2008 — The rough north shore of St. Croix is strewn with glass that humans have thrown into the sea, but artist Lea Ann Robson says Mother Nature has improved upon the litter, sandblasting and washing ashore beautiful broken shards of sea glass.
"Something from nothing is often the best thing," says Robson, jewelry designer for From the C.
For six years Robson lived on the north shore, walking the beach every day and picking up beach glass that she uses in her handmade jewelry and ornaments. Rough surf combines forces with sand and coral to polish the broken shards into luminous pieces. Robson says she doesn't polish or tumble the glass because she thinks the allure is in the beauty of the glass just as it is.
"I'm grateful so much of what washes up on St. Croix beaches is from green beer bottles," Robson says. "Because the color works so well in ornaments."
Those ornaments are "Jingle Palms," with fronds made of green sea glass and tiny jingle bells as coconuts. The components are twisted, held together and shaped with a trunk wrapped in aluminum-alloy wire. The palm trees are the most popular of her ornaments, Robson says.
"A lot of people collect the ornaments, so I try to expand and improve my line every year to keep customers and myself from getting bored," she says. It has taken her 14 years for the designs to evolve into what she does now.
New this year is her "Holiday Hatchlings" — green-glass sea turtles and "White Holly" clusters, with red jingle bells for berries. Also in the collection are Christmas trees with colored beads that could pass as tiny presents, angels with fine copper wire for hair, and brown-glass reindeer.
Robson designs Christmas-tree earrings, white or green, and gaily colored beaded bracelets and necklaces that can be seen during the holidays on women all over St. Croix.
Robson also makes earrings and necklaces for year round in shades of pale aqua and pale green. The earrings are made with sterling-silver wires. The-aluminum alloy wires on other items do not tarnish or change in any way. She also ads gemstones such as aquamarine and amethyst, complementing the hues of the sea glass.
Her talents and creative abilities are in her genes, Robson says. Her father was a fine woodworker and photographer, while her mother was very crafty and could make almost anything out of nothing, she says.
"As a child of the '60s and '70s, I did a lot of crafts," Robson says. Her earliest memories of crafting was making rosebud bread-dough flowers and sewing Barbie doll clothes with her mother.
She attended Marshall University in her hometown of Huntington, W.V., earning a bachelor's degree with a major in psychology and English and a minor in fine arts, with an emphasis in textile design. She was influenced as a hand weaver by Michael Cornfeld, the chair of the Fine Arts department at Marshall, learning to do tapestries and upholstery fabric.
Robson moved to St. Croix 16 years ago from Annapolis, Md., not wanting a life just like everyone else — with two cars, two kids and a house. She came to the territory without a job but landed a job as a claims adjuster, which lasted for eight months. She would go to homes to file claims where pit bulls were tied to cars, and she was scared off by them too often. Robson has a couple of other day jobs now.
When she needs supplies, Robson takes a walk on the beach. She doesn't depend on anything other than manual tools. And when she is set up as a vendor, it is at a beautiful place such as the St. George Village Botanical Garden or the Whim Plantation Museum.
"I just did the governor's Christmas fair and I do the agricultural fair," Robson says. "I have fun and a wonderful time at these events."
She also was set up during the first cruise-ship visit in November and did very well with sales, and plans to vend during future cruise-ship visits.
Robson has plans to branch out to more Caribbean islands and get her web page up and running.
"I get calls from people who have purchased items during a visit and they want to buy more or find out about new designs," Robson says. "So it will be nice to have the website developed."
On St. Croix, her creations may be purchased at Design Works on Company Street in Christiansted and at St. George Village Botanical Garden Museum Store.
For more information about From the C and C Stone Gems, call 277-0058 or 778-6239.
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