Case Study : English Sea Glass - Penny Parker

Penny Parker, 42, enjoyed scouring the beaches of the North East coast for years looking for the brightly coloured glass pebbles that washed up with the tides. It was only in the autumn of last year that she realised just how special her sea glass could be.

Penny explained: “I’ve lived in the North East for the last 15 years and collecting sea glass is a great hobby of mine. It was only when I suffered a family break-up and was left to support myself, that I looked at turning my hobby into something more.”

As a terminal insomniac, sometimes managing only one hour’s sleep in 24, taking on employment was not a viable option for Penny. Her condition often leaves her exhausted and clumsy.

It turned out that the sea glass Penny had collected for years was actually worth some money so she started her business, English Sea Glass, hand-crafting individual pieces of jewellery from the glass in her collection.

Noel Cowley, a business coach for Be Enterprising, County Durham’s Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI), convinced Penny that she has exactly what it takes to run a business. He helped her to set up English Sea Glass and was there to support her in the early months of getting started.

Noel said: “I’m really glad that I could help Penny to set up her own company. It’s fantastic when someone can turn a hobby into a viable business and Penny has done just that.

“Her passion for what she does is what is going to make her go very far indeed.”

Be Enterprising was created to inspire enterprise and bring about positive and measurable changes in the unemployment hotspots of County.

English Sea Glass, so-called because sea glass from England is considered to be among the best in the world, sells jewellery, charms and decorative bubble boards, as well as t-shirts and other printed materials incorporating Penny’s sea glass photography.

Earlier this year Penny was at the North Carolina Fashion Week in south eastern USA where she exhibited her jewellery. She has also taken on a part-time assistant, Anne Ridley, who helps Penny to collect the sea glass and provides support at sales and exhibitions.

She said: “It was Noel who saw the business benefit of going over to the fashion week. I had felt because I couldn’t sell at the event it wasn’t worth the investment, but Noel saw it as a fantastic marketing opportunity.

“I’m very glad that I went across as it has created a huge buzz about my jewellery. Models wore my designs on the catwalk and it seemed everyone there wanted to know where they could buy English Sea Glass.”

Due to the popularity of her product in the states, Penny has been able to secure a store in Long Island in New York that now stocks her glass jewellery. She also sells her goods through the National Glass Centre in Sunderland.

Penny explained that sea glass is very popular in the USA but English sea glass is even more sought after.

“There are lots of American sea glass enthusiasts and collectors and they value English sea glass because it is among the oldest in the world. In the North East our glassmaking dates back to the 1800s and the sea glass that washes up on our shores has been in the sea so long it is smooth and deeply frosted, which makes it highly desirable.”

England’s sea glass is so popular that Penny is regularly contacted by Americans who come across to scour the beaches. Last October she took her work to the North American Sea Glass Festival in Delaware, where she sold out and Penny will be there again this October when the event travels to Erie, Pennsylvania.

The sea glass is valued by colour, so common sea glass of white, green and brown will not fetch as much as the rarer shades of red, orange and purple. A necklace made from a dozen pieces of small red sea glass can expect to cost around £450.

All of Penny’s jewellery is handmade and some items can take as long as eight hours to make. She has also created a range of bridal charms, her own invention, which consists of a piece of blue sea glass on a handmade charm, which she markets as the something old, borrowed and blue that can be given to the bride-to-be for her wedding day.

Penny is about to have a book published which is all about English sea glass and explains why it is so precious.

For more information on English Sea Glass or to view the range of items for sale visit www.englishseaglass.com