HOME GROWN & LOCAL Becky Thatcher Designs

HOME GROWN

& LOCAL

Becky Thatcher Designs

Becky photographed inside her Front St. Traverse City store.

PHOTO BY CARL GANTOR

HOME GROWN & Local

with Becky Thatcher Designs

Glen Arbor, Leland, Traverse City

beckythatcherdesigns.com

Becky Thatcher Designs are the exquisite hand-crafted jewelry that Becky has been curating for almost four decades. Her stores in Glen Arbor, Leland, and Traverse City showcase spectacular gemstones from all around the world.

Becky’s love for making jewelry began with her exploring the beach during summers at her parents’ cottage in Northern Michigan. Her other love was horses, which led her to horse country: Middleburg, VA. But she continued making jewelry and worked the circuit of craft shows. “At one point in my life, I had to choose horses or jewelry…there was no way I could do both as well as I would need to.” The inception for a store in Glen Arbor was part of a ten-year plan to return to the area. That meant she had to bring a job with her, as there weren’t job prospects at that time. She forged her own way, purchasing a cottage as her flagship store that opened in 1983.

Tell us about your horses. “Horses had to wait…finally making the Mongolian trek, 230 miles up to and along the Siberian border was a dream come true. After that trip, life didn’t quite feel complete without a horse in it. My sister and I were still two girls longing for ponies after 50...so my sister got a loan from my dad (which she paid back), and we acquired two of the best Icelandic ponies we could have dreamed of. Endurance riding was our goal, and we have explored much of our neighboring countryside and joined organized rides across the state.”

What keeps you inspired? “Incorporating the ideas behind the jewelry, such as the awe and appreciation of our forests and its fauna, with jewelry lines like The Forest Floor Impressions and The Endangered Insects Collections.”