Eastern Passage, N.S., artist turns trash into treasure

An artist in Eastern Passage, N.S., has been turning trash into treasure for the last 13 years.

Sandra Varner transforms discarded sea glass from Nova Scotia beaches into art.

"Most people that grew up in the 70s or 80s, sea glass was everywhere, you really didn't value it and you would see it and toss it back. The older I have gotten, the more uncommon it is to find sea glass and it's rare and it's beautiful,” says Varner, owner of By the Ocean Art.

It all started when she was making a craft for her children and decided to add a few pieces of sea glass to each one.

"Because it was so much fun, I made some more and I made some more and my mother-in-law was having a church craft sale and so I put them in the craft sale and I sold a few pieces and then went into another craft sale,” she says.

She then posted a few on Facebook and the requests started coming in.

"And it grew from there,” says Varner.

The popularity sparked her business, which is currently in its ninth season. She stays busy with work and she loves learning where her customers are visiting from.

“I love seeing people come in and their reaction, especially people who have never seen it before or experienced it before,” says Varner.

Lucille Wood from British Columbia is one of those visitors who has never experienced sea glass before and was fascinated by it.

"When she showed it to me in the light and the light shone through it, I thought it's just gorgeous,” says Wood. “With this East Coast trip, I am going to have lots of things to put on my shelf, pictures and now this sea glass.”

Sandra collects the sea glass from various beaches across Nova Scotia. She says sea glass is often old garbage like bottles that are discarded in the ocean and eventually wash up onshore.

"It's old garbage, it’s old bottles, it’s old glass that ended up in the ocean,” says Varner.

Varner knows how to transform sea glass and loves teaching others how to do it. She offers fully-supplied workshops to the public in group classes and private lessons.

She encourages people who collect sea glass to bring it to her shop to create artwork with it.

The shop is open Thursday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday from noon until 5 p.m. It will remain open through Christmas as well for the Fisherman’s Cove Christmas Market.

For Sandra it's not about the business; it's about the art and making people smile when they see it and create some of their own.

"I believe that pebble art should make you happy,” says Varner. "When people come in here and they appreciate something you made, it’s just astonishing." 

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.