As the owner of one of the world's most elaborate sea glass collections, Mary Beth Beuke gets to talk about these prized ocean gems on a daily basis. Unfortunately, with each passing day, sea glass becomes more and more difficult to find, making the hunt more of a challenge to the seeker—especially one with limited experience in sea glass hunting. There are several reasons why the hunt is so important to the sea glass seeker. Some find their Zen moments in the solitude and beauty of the hunt. Some collect to add color to their lives. The history, mystery, and discovery of sea glass are also strong forces that draw collectors to shorelines around the world, looking for these pieces of physically and chemically weathered frosted glass. Whatever your reason for wanting to learn about and start your own collection of sea glass, the window for doing so is closing as pieces are becoming more elusive due to a growth in sea glass popularity and a decrease in recent glass bottle production. In The Ultimate Guide to Sea Glass: Beach Comber’s Edition, Beuke provides information that will help first-time seekers start new collections and veteran hunters learn more about their current sets. Take this manual with you as you search for your own collection and make notes about what you find along the way.

This definitive reference for beachcombers is also a beautiful addition to any coffee table. Pure Sea Glass surveys the history of glass manufacturing, explains the weathering process that creates frosted gems from fragile shards of old glass and tableware, and offers tips on how and where to find the best pieces. More than 200 exquisite photographs bring to light the luminous beauty of authentic sea glass.

The perfect guide for both seasoned and novice seaglunkers, The Sea Glass Hunter's Handbook reveals how to locate the best beaches and predict optimum conditions; understand coastal access laws; determine the personal and professional value of sea glass' and identify the source of individual fragments. Sea glass connects civilization and nature, often in surprising ways. This guide investigates how tiny bits of glass and ceramic have engaged generations of avid collectors throughout the world.

We may never find message in a bottle, but most of us have fond memories of collecting beach glass. Let the images captured in Treasures from the Tide bring you back to a simpler time and the joy of discovery. This unique photo keepsake celebrates the simple beauty of found objects. Beaches remind us of simple pleasures—swimming in the surf, building sand castles, and collecting smooth, opalescent beach glass. These once man-made objects, perhaps glass bottles or insulators, were broken, rolled and tumbled by the waves, and smoothed into something completely different, something—almost—natural again. Beach glass is found art. Why we take such pleasure in these bits and pieces of manufactured materials reclaimed by nature may be something to contemplate while enjoying Treasures from the Tide—the author surely has, and she conveys that pleasure in playful, organic sculptures that come to life in the interplay of colors and shapes and their interaction with the sand and surf they came from. The sense of a moment in time captured in these photos is like an insect captured in amber, and, in this book, beach glass becomes just as precious.

Self-deprecating and bitingly smart, Delia, a recovering addict, forges her own brand of hard won wisdom on her journey in sobriety. When Delia entered treatment for drug and alcohol addiction at seventeen, her life changed forever. She believed she could make it through anything without backsliding--until she receives a phone call from her best friend, Timothy, whom she met in rehab. Fulfilling a pact they made a decade earlier, she leaves her husband and child in Seattle to care for him as he dies. While in Los Angeles, Delia sorts through her memories--and as her past catches up with her present, she sees she has not merely survived her losses and mistakes, but has been made better because of them. "A tender, terrifying chronicle of the wages of modern-day sin and the hope of the world to come. . . . A story that rings with grief and triumph." --Jacquelyn Mitchard, author, The Deep End of the Ocean and Still Summer "Delicately portraying friendship and loss, temptation and redemption, the turmoil of addiction and the hard-won gifts of recovery, Beachglass is highly recommended for every reader--and required reading for all those in recovery." -- Martha O'Connor, author of The Bitch Posse "A vibrant, engaging, and utterly honest book...this is a novel which seems to be about recovery but is really about so much more: friendship, chosen families, and the transformative power of human love." -- Nicole Mones, author of Lost in Translation "Set in a glittering, gritty, late-80s Los Angeles, Beachglass is a beautifully written novel, which, at its heart, is about friendship . . . Though this story made me weep, it helped me see—through my tears—just how messy and miraculous the human condition can be." – Rebecca Agiewich, author of BreakupBabe WENDY BLACKBURN has been a chemical dependency counselor since 1992. She lives with her family in a small town outside of Seattle, Washington. This is her first novel. Please visit www.wendyblackburn.com

Just like beach glass that starts out as a bottle or a marble or a window, we begin life fresh and clean, our intentions and expectations set. And just as the waves break the bottles into sharp and jagged pieces, life's storms tumble us, shattering our own expectations. But when a prized piece of beach glass reemerges to be found by a lucky collector, its rough edges have been smoothed into a new beauty...not in spite of having been broken, but because of it. We too are formed new with time: like the beach glass, more beautiful for having survived our own storms.

When Nicole finds a beautiful piece of red sea glass on the beach, her grandmother Nana tells her a story from her own childhood of a broken red vase, which may have been the origin of this sea glass. Includes information about sea glass and instructionsfor making a sea glass sun-catcher.