"Sea Glass Business a Lifetime in the Making"

Sequim woman combines passions:  love of ocean, family

By Rebecca Duce, OBJ Staff Writer - May, 2007

Growing up on the Oregon coast with six siblings, Mary Beth Beuke loved spending time on the beach with her family.  And one thing the beach offered was sea glass.  So she picked it up.

Now Beuke’s sea glass collection, created over 30 years, has become part of a thriving business which has her awake late at night after the kids go to sleep and rising before the kids wake, filling orders, marketing the business, designing the jewelry and working with customers and dealers from around the world.

“I’ve been a collector and beachcomber all my life,” Beuke said.  “I’ve also been making jewelry all my life, just for fun – as a hobby.”  But when Beuke’s twins made her the mother of three, she found the need to give up her career as a minister to care for her family.  That’s when she started looking at her huge collection of sea glass in another way.

“The business-side of me really kicked in,” she said, “and (the business) developed into something I could do at home.  It grew so fast it’s comical.  I’m a stay-at-home mom and I’m working more than ever now!”  And Beuke has the energy for it all.  “I don’t hold still very well,” she said, “not that staying home with twin toddlers is holding still…”

Beuke found being a stay-at-home mother isolating and needed other outlets for her energy.  Now, fully immersed in her business, she finds herself in contact with dozens of people every day, conducting business all over the world through the Internet, and having her jewelry appear in 30 different galleries across the country.

Real v. Created

Because sea glass is a finite resource, good quality, genuine sea glass in large quantities is hard to come by, therefore making Beuke’s collection rare and valuable.  Plus, her collection has glass from all over the world.

West Coast Sea Glass is one of the top four businesses in the world specializing in sea glass jewelry, Beuke says.  “People started placing orders for the jewelry whether I had time or not,” she said.  “Stores started asking for it.”  Beuke says she was able to keep up with the rising demand for her products because she already had the glass on hand.  There would not have been time to accumulate the glass and fill the orders, she said.

Beuke also believes the experiences and situations in her life, some which she had no control over, have greatly influenced the creation and success of her business.  “It was layers of things that fell into place that I don’t think I could have orchestrated myself,” she said.  Because her mother was an antique dealer specializing in glassware, she grew up in the antique glass world.  Now she is one of a very few professionals who can identify different types of sea glass for clients, another layer of profitability for her business.

She also realizes how important networking is to her business and the business of sea glass.  Beuke is the president of the North American Sea Glass Association, a conglomeration of artists, photographers, writers and archeologists with the goal of establishing a community of informed collectors and sellers of sea glass that are educated on the characteristics and significance of genuine sea glass and upholding the integrity of the business of sea glass.  Beuke attends sea glass shows and is often a speaker, conducts seminars and identifies rare sea glass from all over the world.

I was asked at a seminar last weekend how much time I spend on the beach and my answer was ‘not enough.’” Beuke says she has reached a tipping point where she is spending more and more time on the computer, filling orders and working with customers and dealers.  The irony isn’t lost on her.

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