I'm not a diamond girl, and though I'd like to say that my only reason why was something noble like outrage over the diamond mining situation, the truth is that I thought diamonds were (gasp) boring a long time before they were controversial. Beautiful, yes, but give me some color and texture over a diamond any day. I just got back from a beach vacation where I was reminded how much I love sea glass. Sea glass is simply broken glass -- trash really, that's polished by the ocean over decades (sometimes centuries) and then washes up on beaches like little rainbow gemstones.
Artisans and jewelers set sea glass in everything from sterling silver to Lucite to gold. A couple of my favorite places to find sea glass jewelry: By the Sea Jewelry and West Coast Sea Glass.
Just like diamonds, sea glass has lots of imposters out there. So if it matters to you that your sea glass actually came from the sea, be sure your sea glass is certified genuine and not man-made.