Meet Your Neighbor: Friends make art out of beach glass finds

Sheri Trusty
·3 min read

PORT CLINTON  - About four summers ago, friends Debbie Prue and Judy Porter took off on their WaveRunners for a joyride across Lake Erie. The longtime friends had often jet skied together, but this trip was unexpectedly magical. This time, they discovered secret beaches piled with glistening beach glass.

“It was so sparkly. It was shining,” Porter said.

Prue and Porter stopped to investigate and realized they found a glass collector’s paradise.

Debbie Prue, left, will teach classes on creating art with beach glass at The Arts Garage this month. Judy Prue, right, holds one of her hand painted charcuterie boards.
Debbie Prue, left, will teach classes on creating art with beach glass at The Arts Garage this month. Judy Prue, right, holds one of her hand painted charcuterie boards.

Beach held an abundance of glass

“We discovered these secret beaches close to shore and saw an abundance of bleach glass. Later, we realized there was no way to get to them by land. You could only go be WaveRunner or kayak,” Prue said.

For the next four summers, the friends visited the beaches as least twice a week and drove their WaveRunners home loaded with treasure. In addition to pounds and pounds of brightly colored beach glass, there were unique finds, like a plastic G.I. Joe figurine with a piece of beach glass attached, and a rock with glass imbedded in it.

“My favorites are the bottle tops from vintage medicine bottles and perfume bottles. I have all sizes and colors,” Prue said. “I found five marbles, but it took me four years to find them.”

Beach glass hearts and stones are a special find

Beach glass or stones shaped like hearts are poignant finds for the ladies, who keep them in special glass jars in memory of their mothers.

“We both have a whole jar of hearts in beach glass and stone,” Prue said. “Her mother’s name is Dorothy, and my mother’s name is Dorothy, and they both passed away, so we collect the hearts for them.”

A large tub of beach glass sits at Debbie Prue’s home waiting to be sorted. Prue and her friend, Judy Porter, discovered the beach glass at what the call “secret beaches” on the Lake Erie Shore.
A large tub of beach glass sits at Debbie Prue’s home waiting to be sorted. Prue and her friend, Judy Porter, discovered the beach glass at what the call “secret beaches” on the Lake Erie Shore.

Although Porter has since moved to Florida, she still visits — and glass hunts — with Prue each summer. Today, Prue’s home is filled with glass. Some are separated by shape and some by color. Some are displayed in pretty glass jars, and some is stored in plastic containers waiting to be sorted.

Women use beach glass for their art

Both Prue and Porter are artists who incorporate glass into some of their art. They sell their work in retail shops and accept commission requests. Porter creates mixed media art using “everything from the beach,” she said, including glass, pottery, stones and shells. She also hand paints charcuterie boards, including mermaid boards, that are popular sellers at Unique in Port Clinton, the Pink Perch in Marblehead and at shops in Florida.

The art of Debbie Prue and Judy Porter are spread across a table on Prue’s Port Clinton home. Both women sell their art in local shops, and Prue teaches beach glass art classes at The Arts Garage.
The art of Debbie Prue and Judy Porter are spread across a table on Prue’s Port Clinton home. Both women sell their art in local shops, and Prue teaches beach glass art classes at The Arts Garage.

Prue is a painter and, since discovering a passion for glass, she also creates whimsical art that combines drawing with pieces of glass that look like things such as birds, flowerpots or skirts. She sells her works at Country House on Put-in-Bay, at Unique and at a shop in Harbor Springs, Michigan.

Although Prue’s home is filled with glass, she loves to share it by teaching other people how to create art with glass. She will teach a Coo Coo Birds Beach Glass Art Class at The Arts Garage (TAG) on Sept. 23 and a Flowerpots class using glass and pottery from Lake Erie at TAG on Sept. 30. For pricing and registration information, visit gpcaac.org.

Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at  sheritrusty4@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Meet Your Neighbor: Artist friends use glass found on secret beaches