Seaglass Collector Breaks Into Profitable Business - Article by Rebecca Mowe
One man's junk is another man's treasure, as they say in the antique world. In Mary Beth Beuke's world, one man's garbage is a lucky woman's jewelry, and a smart woman's very successful business. Beuke is the founder, owner, artistic manager, buyer, production director, head of sales and distribution supervisor of West Coast Sea Glass.
Definitions are in order. “West Coast” speaks for itself. But what the heck is “sea glass?” There’s nothing in the dictionary between “seagirt” and “seagoing.” Japanese fishing floats? Good guess but not the whole picture. Not really flotsam. Or jetsam.
Sea glass, or seaglass, is garbage — discarded glass, thrown from a ship at sea or tossed from land into a body of water, which, as a result of decades of underwater buffeting, becomes broken, polished, weathered, and frosted. It can be a century old piece of a red Czech vase, or the beer bottle Uncle Joe tossed off a cliff during spring break 20 years ago. It is not a broken juice glass tumbled in a mechanical rock polisher. It is the pretty stuff we used to pick up as kids on the beach.
Beuke used to collect it too, as a youngster living in Portland. But what was a casual hobby a few years ago, has become a profitable business for the Sequim resident and mother of three young children.
Beuke was a seaglass business waiting to happen. Her mother was an antique dealer specializing in glassware. Beuke had experience in retail sales, in photography, and in accounting, as well as a flair for visual arts. She had a house on the beach and a personal collection of seaglass. More >
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