Photos by Neil Farrell

It’s known as Mermaid tears, and over the weekend, Cayucos’ Fifth Annual Sea Glass Festival was the place to be for fans of the colorful shards, shaped, and textured by decades in the ocean. This year’s festival included a new attraction, as dozens of businesses took part in the “Mermaid March,” displaying mermaid images in a variety of mediums. Though just 5-years old, the festival has expanded into a full-on happening, with a barbecue, beer, wine, live music and dozens of artisans selling custom jewelry, sea glass paintings, home décor and more. According to Wikipedia, sea glass is shards of broken bottles and broken tableware, tumbled and ground in the sea until the sharp edges are smooth and rounded. Sea glass takes 20-30 years, or as much as 50 years to acquire a rough, opaque texture and shape. The color of the glass tells a lot about origins. The most common colors are Kelly green and white and come from beer, juice, and soft drink bottles. The most uncommon include purple, citron, opaque white and cornflower blue [from early Milk of Magnesia bottles, poison bottles, artwork, and Bromo-Seltzer and Vicks VapoRub containers], among others. These colors are found once in 200-1,000 pieces. Photos by Neil Farrell