Susan Koomar slips on her waterproof shoes. She buttons up her coat and steps out into the brisk winter chill, heading for the unwelcoming anger of the ocean waves. She relishes the overcast sky and the powerful tides. The conditions are perfect.

Koomar collects sea glass. She began the hobby 10 years ago after reading an article by expert collector Richard LaMotte.

Her fascination with sea glass began because of its beauty and unknown origins.

“Nature takes our broken, discarded pieces and transforms them into beautiful gems,” she said. “I love the mystery and history of sea glass. Where did it come from, how old is it and who did it belong to? Fragments of glass can come from shipwrecks, a mug, a bowl, a dish and from any part of a person’s daily life.”

Koomar, who lives at Lake Hauto in Nesquehoning, first began collecting along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Her hobby has since taken her to the shores of Delaware, Virginia, New York and Canada. She has also explored the wet sands of Lake Erie.

Her favorite finds have been green glass bottle stoppers last year on Campobello Island in Canada and lavender and brown stoppers from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She has discovered a green Coca-Cola bottle from the 1920s completely intact and a blue blob top bottle from the 1890s. Considering its name and where she searches, Koomar’s most appropriate find might be pieces of glass from an old Ocean Spray bottle.

Her most precious find has been two pieces of extremely rare red glass, or what she calls “the Holy Grail” of sea glass collecting.

“In his book, ‘Pure Sea Glass,’ LaMotte estimates the chances of finding true red glass are one in 5,000. My first red was found along Lake Erie in October of 2019. In August of this year, I found a gorgeous grooved piece of red glass on Staten Island.”

Koomar believes her August find was probably from a Fresnel lens, perhaps broken off from an old lighthouse.

Her most unusual find was not a piece of glass at all. In Canada, she located and picked up something that was later identified as a moose hoof.

Finding sea glass, which brings her a rush of excitement, is never a guarantee, but the experience always brings Koomar great joy.

“Searching for the glass is so serene, so relaxing and even magical for me. I become immersed in the sound of the waves and the feel of the ocean breeze.”

While walking along a cove on Campobello Island one perfectly still morning, she heard a strange sound that came through the silence. She looked out to the sea and saw the sound was a “wheeze blow” coming from a large whale breathing through its blow hole as it was swimming by.

Koomar’s artistic roots have come from her family tree. Her father loved art and music, and her uncle John Koomar was a well-known commercial artist.

She displays her collection in boxes, bowls and jars. She has also placed some of her treasures in collages and other artwork designs.

One of her favorite pieces is a mosaic of a fish where she used blue and green pottery bits and two curved green Jadeite shards of sea glass for the tail.

She intends to make pendants and other jewelry once she learns how to properly drill holes through glass.

Koomar explained that a sea glass collector has to “develop an eye” to be able to spot the fragments that wash up on the sand. The winter is the best time because of the larger waves, cloudy skies and stronger tides and also for the fact that most shorelines are devoid of people during the cold months.

When asked how she can be so in love with exploring the sands of the sea while living in the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Koomar replied with a laugh, “Maybe I’m the world’s only coal cracker mermaid.”

When she retires from working at the Gift of Life donor program, she wants to travel to Seaham, England, home of some of the most beautiful multicolored sea glass in the world.

But for now, she looks forward to another frigid winter day when she can bundle up and search another shoreline in hopes of finding more glass and another piece of her Holy Grail to add to her already impressive collection.