About a week and a half ago, I was given an extraordinarily generous gift of jewelry making supplies. I kid you not when I say I was gobsmacked. Clearly, I write when the emotions are heavy or hard, but I want to also make a point of writing when things are joyous and good and heart-overflowing-the-brim good. This gift is exactly like that.
I’ve been making beaded jewelry since I was an early teenager in Athens, Ohio. My favorite little bead store, Beads-N-Things, run by Joey and Phil, has had a warm place in my heart since. The owners taught me much about jewelry-making, the names and nature of gemstone, and jazz, goodness, how to calculate sales tax on a purchase, and how not to put the bad clasps back in with the good ones. And endless patience when the container of beads fell on the floor. Great memories and a sharing of knowledge makes my heart go on nostalgia overload.
Making jewelry and selling it started out as a way to pay for my bead habit. As my skill and technique improved, and my grown-up needs got bigger, sometimes selling jewelry allowed me to have a few extra bucks for extras or essentials. I remember bringing a binder full of baseball card sleeves filled with earrings to work and passing it around to the gals in the office. Sometimes the buy a pair get a pair of sale occurred the last week of the month before payday.
Jewelry sales led me to the farmers market and even a bricks and mortar shop of my own for nearly five years. When Bryan was sick it was the way I could bring in a little extra income for our family and frankly a way for folks to help out when we all felt so damned helpless.
In more recent years, I’ve leaned heavily on my jewelry sales to subsidize my philanthropy–our Mom’s nursing scholarship, donations to the YWCA and others. It’s in that spirit that I receive this tremendous gift. I’ve spent the last week or so making a necklace and earrings set that I hope to raffle off for the Blue Mountain Humane Society (a favorite non-profit of the gift giver and who doesn’t love the good work they do?) I used sterling silver wire, chain, and findings along with an assortment of gemstones (the Seahawk colors are totally by accident, I promise.)
100% of the proceeds go to the Blue Mountain Humane Society.
Rules and info:
The raffle goes through 10/31/2026.
Raffle “ticket” is $5 each with no limit on the number of tickets you can get.
US participants and shipping only.
Use https://venmo.com/u/FerylGal_1 to pay for raffle tickets. I will do regular updates throughout the month.
Drawing will occur on 11/01/2026. Set will be shipped out/delivered that week.
Message me with any questions.
If jewelry is not your thing, please share this post and information with someone who might be so inclined. Let’s raise money for the doggos and kittehs in this valley who need good homes and for the organization that takes care of them until they get there. And help me pay forward this extraordinary gift that is so much bigger than me.
