Remember those gentle childhood days on the beach, collecting bits of soft, colored glass? An entire industry is now springing up around those pretty nuggets, which are no longer just the purview of idle summer afternoons.

"People have now realized how rare it's become," said Richard LaMotte, whose book "Pure Sea Glass" has sold 40,000 copies. "What used to be something people collect in a jar has now become an expensive and serious collectable."

You know it's serious when they form an association -- the North American Sea Glass Association, which hosted its first annual North American Sea Glass Festival in Santa Cruz, Calif. Clusters of collectors gathered around LaMotte, asking for his autograph, while he described the beaches he hunts at Chesapeake Bay.

A single, rare piece of sea glass can sell for as much as $250, said some collectors. A pound of it could be worth several thousand dollars.

"What's wonderful about sea glass is the colors, the different shapes, no two pieces will ever be the same," said Terri Reed-Boyer, who creates sterling silver and 14k gold jewelry using pieces of beach glass found on the shores of Lake Erie. "Part of the mystique behind beach glass or sea glass is you don't know its history, how long it's been tumbling out there among the water and the sand and the rocks."

The festival included lectures on subjects like "Extreme Sea Glass Beachcombing" from Charles Peden, who collects, appraises, sells and drills beach glass at By the Bay Treasures in Benecia, Calif.

"To find the good stuff, you basically rappel, boulder, rock climb or kayak your way onto the remote beaches," he said. "It really takes beachcombing to a different level."

Peden also recommends donning wet suit, life vest and surf booties and wading out into the impact zone to sift through the gravel wash amid crashing waves.

"The vast majority of beachcombers are staying away from places like this," he said, "And it's certainly a good way to find a large enough supply of good beach glass."

The festival also featured a Shard of the Year Contest -- a competitive face-off with a $1,000 grand prize. The shard contest judging rules explain a lot about what is valuable about beach glass.

For example, higher scores are given to better colors -- orange, red, turquoise and yellow. Lower scoring colors are the soft blues, lime greens and golden ambers. The condition is also a factor: smooth, rounded pieces that are entirely frosted are highly desired, while nicks, cracks and sharp edges are considered lower quality.

Truly rare pieces of sea glass have bubbles or unique lips indicating that they are more than 100 years old. Pieces with identifiable text or patterns are also collected, as are marbles and apothecary stoppers. If you're really lucky, you find a bottle bottom with a "pontil scar," left decades ago when glass bottles were manufactured with a metal rod tipped with hot glass to hold them in place, leaving a slight indent on the base.

Along with popularity comes fraud. Fake sea glass, which is made by breaking glass, putting it in a tumbler and shaking it around until it has the smooth, frosted look of genuine beach glass, is increasingly common.

Experts say they can almost always tell the difference, if not in how it looks, then in how it feels.

LaMotte said beach glass goes beyond the aesthetic, to an almost spiritual level.

"For many people it's all about the healing process. You go out to the shore, thinking about something, reach down to pick up something and find it's a lot more beautiful than you expected. It's all about finding something rare," he said.

And sometimes selling it.

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asap contributor Martha Mendoza is an AP national writer.

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