I'm not accustomed to this lack of blog writing. It was so much fun writing almost everyday during Per and Amund's expedition. As you may have guessed, the guys made it home safe and sound. Amund's been out of touch, and it's possible that he might be stuck in bed trying to recover from living in the wake of Per's exuberance. Per and I continue to send emails to eachother almost daily, and there has been a continued exchange of float history and floats between us.

This post is more of a catching up for me, and hopefully, an interesting read for you. The last two weeks have been quite full. There has not been enough time in the last days to accomplish all that I would have liked-namely writing a post, researching and looking for floats on Ebay. Many emails have been received from collectors and others, and many float deals have been in the works. A wonderful trade was finalized, boxes are on their way across the Atlantic, and new friendships have started. Established friendships continue to bring emails, good thoughts and smiles.

A very exciting relationship was started thanks to Vebjorn. Most of you are familiar with Vebjorn's website, Best Norwegian. Vebjorn and I have been close email friends for a number of years, and he did me a huge favor by introducing me to another collector.

I woke up one morning to an email from a collector that I was unfamiliar with. The email began with an excellent introduction, followed by the kind of personal history that only another ardent collector could fully appreciate reading. This collector's experience and knowledge of Norwegian floats is unmatched. It has been completely exhilarating sharing photos of our floats, exchanging a few historical ideas, and forming a camraderie that will last for many years.

I continue to cut 6 acres of grass every week-thanks to a nice rain-filled summer that has kept everything lush. The business doesn't stop either-keeping up with the watering between rainy days, planting, etc. Always enjoy finding time to be with Nancy too. It is odd going to sleep knowing that there were a number of Ebay sites that I haven't searched for days. Trying to finish a good book while lying in bed before sleep has been all but fruitless too. A paragraph, then a line, then single words or phrases have to be reread a time or two, before I give it up and turn out the light.

Above is one of the most exciting floats that I've seen in a long time. As most of you Euro collectors know, the normal colors of Heye Glassverks floats are a few shades of green and sometimes shades of amber. Per has found an aqua Heye float. Not only is it aqua, but it also has water in it. This is the first aqua, clover marked Heye float that I know of. Here is Per's rendition of the story of his finding this wonderful and uncommonly-colored German float:

Hi Tom!

It is good to be back home again. It was fun traveling with Amund, and less stressful.

My conclusions from this expedition:

There were plenty of floats at the areas we visited. Only a handful of floats that had interesting marks, no rare shaped floats at all, and only round glass floats for sale. All the beautiful and rare shaped floats were not for sale, *%#?!!

This expedition had good luck too with histories concerning the use of glass floats, float color, etc. There are taped Mp4 record files of interviews too.


We have spent approx 5 days looking for floats and history. 10 days were filled with writing emails, photoshooting floats and areas, phonecalls, local advertising for floats, Eagle photography, fishing, driving my SUV and vehicle ferries to fishing districts far from the mainland, with hardly any population at all. Some of the places even advertise for people by offering free land if you settle down and make those places your new home.

Anyone interested? Your own Island home-away from everything. Purchase your own fishing boat, build a house with a boathouse. Go for it! You can connect onto the internet by cellular or satelite phone, and run your own business. LoL

A fisherman and I had a great conversation last week. He told me histories about using new fishing nets and other gear for deep water fishing. Very often, they pulled up old fishing nets with glassfloats instead of fish. Often, those glass floats were filled with seawater from the pressure of the deep. The floats were still intact and without any damage.

I have a few in my exhibition at home. My favorite is a 1/4 filled with sea water, 8 inch Herman Heye float, ice blue color and a beauty. It is my first find at the Austevoll area, just a few miles east from my hometown Bergen, and only one vehicle-ferry crossing. ;-)

Enjoy the terrific auctions that Per currently has on Ebay. If you look into each auction you will find additional photos from the expedition. Photos which were unavailable to post to the blog during the expedition. I've got myself psyched for at least one of Per's floats. Hope I win it! Hope you win one too. Enjoy seeing rare and beautiful floats, some with beautiful nets, a great wooden barrel, and wonderful photography from the eyes, mind and hands of Per.