WINTER AGATES - OREGON

Seven years ago I went to the Oregon coast to surf with friends; I used to surf the Oregon coast quite a bit. I had heard about an agate beach nearby where we were staying and planned to go during this trip. Although I had never gone agate hunting, something was drawing me into really wanting to go. We arrived at the coast and I told my friends that I was going to look for agates the following day, they were intrigued and wanted to join. The next day was windy, 20-30mph windy with higher gusts, but I didn’t care, the agates were calling. We arrived at the beach I had read about and the sand was blowing sideways, stinging the legs, getting into the eyes. We began looking for agates and it didn’t take long to find them, jelly bean sized agates were seemingly everywhere. I was enthralled, captivated by the color, shine and shape. My brain started spinning as to what I could make out of these million year old rocks (in college I took 24 credits of metal craft, making small sculptures and j