Combing the Globe

The “premium collection” (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Fred and his “super umbrella” from Italy. Fred’s childhood collections (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Friedrich “Fred” Mülln is a beachcomber from Munich, Germany. He travels all over the world, always on the lookout for multicolored sea glass and glass in rare colors and shapes. Fred has been collecting minerals, shells, fossils mushrooms, and sea glass all his life. He says that after finding a book on sea glass in Santa Cruz, California, he became fascinated instantly and started researching all the best spots in the world to travel for beachcombing. He beachcombs most often with his partner. “She brings me good luck,” Fred says. Since Fred lives in landlocked Bavaria, with river beaches containing only common colors of sea glass, Fred beachcombs almost exclusively in locations where he travels for holidays and work. 

Some of Fred's favorite finds (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Though he searches on mostly sandy and pebble-filled beaches around the world, Fred’s favorite spot is Italy. His searches in Italy take him to old dump sites available only at low tide, by boat, or by snorkeling. These locations tend to have dirty water, lots of waste, and very tough conditions. They are worth the effort, though: Fred’s favorite dump sites contain unique art glass, dumped by the famous Murano art glass industry between 50 and 150 years ago.

Lighthouse in Murano, Venice (Photomarine/Shutterstock.com). Mud snorkeling in the Venice Lagoon (Fred’s Sea Glass).

“Tides and mud buried the best stuff,” so Fred says he mostly finds newer sea glass today. Though the pieces he finds in Italy are beautiful, they aren’t usually very frosted because the Venetian Lagoon has almost no wave action.

Sea glass found in the Venetian Lagoon near Murano, Italy (Fred’s Sea Glass).

“It’s even more difficult to find millefiori or coveted umbrella-shaped sea glass. The best finds are from years ago,” Fred explains.

Sea glass found in the Venetian Lagoon near Murano, Italy (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Fred’s favorite time of year to beachcomb is in the cold Italian winter, for three main reasons. For one, in summer, the algae cover the underwater surfaces and make it harder to find treasures. Secondly, there are far fewer tourists in the winter. And three: “I am a redhead. The sun is my enemy.” 

Sea glass found in the Venetian Lagoon near Murano, Italy (Fred’s Sea Glass).

“Tides and mud buried the best stuff,” so Fred says he mostly finds newer sea glass today. Fred is usually the only one searching for glass in his favorite spots in Italy, mostly because of their remote locations and the fact that he has to use boats and snorkeling gear to reach them. He does say that when he beachcombs in some places there are a lot of other beachcombers. “In Japan and in the Caribbean I had tough competitors,” he laughs.

Beachcombing in Panama, England, Czech Republic, and Israel (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Beachcombing in some of his spots is not for the faint of heart, according to Fred. The conditions in Murano are difficult and sometimes local authorities can be difficult. In Seaham, England, Fred nearly died because he confused the treacherous “goat path” with a trail even more dangerous 150 feet (50 meters) lower. In some of his other favorite places, it’s much easier to search for glass. In China, Fred remembers being followed by several locals, who were wondering what a westerner was doing on their dirty fishing harbor beach. He says he was amused by their confusion upon seeing his bag filled with sea glass. “I think they thought I was crazy collecting something that has no value to them,” Fred says.

Czech Republic sea glass treasures (Fred’s Sea Glass).

To find new beachcombing spots, Fred does a lot of research and investigation. He uses Google Maps and travels in person to old landfills, seaside pubs, dirty fishing harbors, and similar places that have been occupied by people for a long time. He says that sometimes even a tiny 15-foot (5-meter) beach in the corner of a harbor can be a treasure trove of glass. 

Fred’s German marble found in the Caribbean (Fred’s Sea Glass).

One time, in the Caribbean, Fred was snorkeling and saw something colorful in the sand. He dove, dug, and was rewarded with finding a marble from the town of Laucha, Germany, produced in the 1890s.

Hong Kong beach finds (Fred’s Sea Glass).

In Hong Kong, he found a frosted ampule sealed with lead, filled with a mysterious black fluid.

Blue stopper found in the Czech Republic (Fred’s Sea Glass).

A few days after speaking with Beachcombing for this story, Fred found a blue stopper with a clear core from a river in the Czech Republic with a glassblowing tradition. “It’s perfectly frosted.”

Angel wing chandelier piece (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Fred’s biggest treasure, however, is an angel wing, part of a Murano chandelier. He describes it as “the find of a lifetime.”

Some of Fred’s favorite Murano finds (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Fred’s favorite thing about sea glass is thinking about the history of the items he finds. “Who created this bonfire glass I am looking at, who was the child who lost this German marble in the Caribbean 100 years ago, and who was the glassblowing trainee yelled at by a master glass artist for wasting a beautiful chandelier piece I found 70 years later?” He also loves the feeling of being alone by the sea, with wind on his face and the sound of sea glass in his pockets. 

Rare Murano millefiori sea glass pieces. Sea pottery from Japan and Portugal (Fred’s Sea Glass).

Fred stores most of his treasures in his home, which includes lots of sea glass but also a big whale tooth, rare pottery from Japan, and “Frozen Charlotte” porcelain dolls. He would love to find a glass stopper from a bottle of Maggi Seasoning Sauce (his favorite seasoning) and a chunky frosted piece of uranium glass. 

Porcelain figurines from Germany, whale tooth from Venice, fossils from central Germany (Fred’s Sea Glass). Maggi glass stopper (Ambiance Boutique).

Fred’s beachcombing spots span the globe. He visits China, where he collects big frosted chunks of old sea foam glass, marbles, and crystals. In Japan, he searches the beach for frosted sake bottle sea glass. In Hong Kong, he scores rare colors of glass and marbles.

German beach finds, including sea glass and bonfire sea glass (Fred’s Sea Glass).

And, in his home country of Germany, he beachcombs in the Heligoland archipelago—two islands in the North Sea—where he finds multis and pottery shards. On beaches near Hamburg, he finds bonfire and colorful glass.

Melted nails from a beach near Hamburg. German beach glass (Fred’s Sea Glass).

One day, Fred hopes to beachcomb in South Korea and Russia, though he knows it may not be possible for a while.

German beach glass (Fred’s Sea Glass).

When he’s not beachcombing, Fred works as an animal cruelty investigator for an NGO. “I see very sad things all over the world, but I compensate by looking for sea glass.” When he travels, Fred mostly stays in short-term rentals or sleeps in his car, since hotel costs add up fast. He’s been a vegan for a long time, so he mainly cooks for himself on the road. 

Opalescent sea glass fish from the Venetian Lagoon near Murano, as found and after cleaning (Fred’s Sea Glass).

“It’s important for me that we protect our passion,” says Fred. “I am very sad about how seeding, overpicking, and fakes have changed our hobby.” Fred stopped selling his sea glass, partly to make sure there’s enough left on the beach for others. “We all should take care so we can find great pieces on the beach in the future.”

Modern glass floats from Oregon (Kirsti Scott).

Caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware)

There are plenty of pieces of imitation Murano sea glass for sale from unscrupulous sellers, and the fakes can be pretty convincing if you don’t know what to look for. People purchase the remnants and off-cuts from art glass makers and tumble them to add a rough texture like real beach glass. Others purchase marbles, eggs, and other small art glass pieces and tumble them to resemble sea glass.

How to spot fake Murano sea glass:

• Highly frosted sea glass. “Murano pieces found in the Venice area have very unique frost,” says Fred. “There are hardly any waves, and other material is soft mud and bricks, so the frost looks very different from sea glass that comes from beaches with rocks and strong waves.”
• Modern patterns and styles. “Real Murano pieces usually feature typical Murano glassmaking techniques, which the fake pieces don’t,” says one knowledgeable collector.
• Large quantities of Murano sea glass for sale from one seller. There just isn’t that much left.

“I find my pieces in banks of glass trash in the water under pretty difficult conditions,” says Fred. “I found most of them many years ago until tides made many of the best places vanish in the mud.”

“Some criminals destroy the reputation of real Murano sea glass,” Fred says. A collector who researched where some of the fakes came from adds, “It took me hours to track these fakes down, but I would like to spare more people getting fooled.”