Glass FloatGallery and Collections
Here I've included pictures of collections and floats sent to me over the years. If you want to add to the gallery, send your submissions to: tothemillers@hotmail.com
Norm Lewis's Unusual Cylinder Float
Greg Liljestrom's Recent Finds From Japan
Items from Bob Germano's Collection
A Gallery Of Floats
Selected Pictures To Highlite Float Varieties
Float With Barnacles
Most glass floats wash up with marine life growing on them. Algae and Goose Neck barnacles are the most common, especially on floats with nets. These two floats picked up some acorn barnacles as companions during their trip. The barnacle on the right is an interesting red-brown color and is almost an inch across at the base. Let me know if you have any idea how long it takes an acorn barnacle to grow this big.
These floats also have the remains of other life
forms that have lived and died on the float, leaving the surface coated with
signs of where they were attached. It's very common to find floats that have
shown signs of different forms of life growing on the floats as they've
traveled the Pacific. I don't know exactly what causes this, but as the
currents travel from the
Float With Coral
A small glass float with coral. From Robin Fowler. It looks like this float spent some time in the tropics.
Molded Floats
The three piece molded floats are often more colorful than the free-form blown floats. Typically they are a rich green like the float on the right, but occasionally a brown or amber one is found like the left one. Although it can't be seen in this picture, the rightmost one has swirls of olive green and brown in the glass.
The Tiny Float
This float is only 4.6" around (1.5" in diameter). It's no bigger than a large brussel sprout. This size is quite rare and I don't know what they were used for. It would be easy to miss this little guy sitting on the beach.
All Types Of Nets
These small netted floats show the wide variety of
nets that can be found. I'm not going to try to guess the types of material
used in each one. My favorites are the two in the back middle and left that I
found growing up in
Small Rollers - Not All Created Equal
These small rolling pin floats give an idea of the different shapes and sizes that are commonly found. On the left is the very tiny 1.5" diameter round float pictured earlier. The leftmost rolling pin float is actually the first one I ever found. I've never seen one exactly like it with it's perfectly rounded shoulders and well formed symmetrical knobs. And the float isn't bad looking either! More typical of the rounded rollers is the second one with rounded shoulders but smaller and less well formed knobs. The two on the right are by far the most common rolling pins found today. They have square shoulders and come in two distinct sizes, one about 4.5" and one about 5.5" long.
Interesting Colors
These two small (2.5" diameter) floats show two unusual colors. One is perfectly white and the other is a very dark olive green.
Frosted Floats
It's not uncommon to find glass floats that have a frosted appearance. Many floats have a very light frosting from rolling on a sandy beach. However, if the beach has very coarse sand, the float can get heavily frosted, as if they've been sandblasted, like the floats above.
The one of the right was rolled on a beach when it still had a net. This caused the net imprint to be preserved as it partially protected the float from being sanded. Eventually, the float rolled back into the ocean, the net rotted away, and it rolled up onto another beach that was more forgiving. Each float tells a story, and this one was made at least two stops in it's tour around the Pacific.
29" Chinese Molded Float
Chinese molded floats have been found more often
over the last couple of decades as the Chinese have started using these
apparently machine made floats. The sizes I've seen run from 29" to
38" in circumference (9-12" diameter). The large goose-neck barnacle
encrusted float on the homepage is a 38" Chinese float found on the
Binary Float
This binary float is made from two 7" diameter
molded floats that are formed together. It forms a thick seam between the
floats. This float was found on
Amber Glass Floats
Amber colored glass floats are also fairly rare. These two floats are shown with regular and backlighting to give you a good idea of what color they are. Both of the floats appear to be blown in a similar way as they are slightly pear shaped and have very similar quality glass. I don't know when or where these were made.
Two Clear American Made Floats
The Americans also dabbled with making glass floats. To the best of my knowledge, the floats pictured here were made by Pittsburgh-Corning during World War II. They were made from very high quality glass in two halves that were fused together. Not many were made, but the 6" diameter float on the left is not considered rare and can commonly be found in gift shops along the West coast.
The 10" diameter float on the right is the only one of this type I've ever seen. I'm not sure of it's exact origin and rarity, although I have a strong suspicion that it is also a Pittsburg-Corning float, but it's intended use is for scientific instrument flotation, not for fishing.
Long Line Tuna Bouy Markers
The Japanese long line tuna fishery often uses
special floats to mark the end of the long line of baited hooks strung out
behind the boat. This iron bouy marker was found on
