Meet Glen & Joyce

Welcome to ReThrive.  

This is more than guitar string jewelry; it is a resilient mental health story. I could tell you that we were the first small makers to begin a guitar string jewelry business here in Nashville, but that isn’t what drives us to create every day. 

I met my husband in the early part of 1988. As a classically trained pianist, I found myself accompanying the college choir on a particular Sunday evening. After the event, I met Glen’s mother first and she was very complimentary of my musical talents. A few weeks later, I met her only son. Our first date happened shortly thereafter and 10 months later we tied the knot. Glen shared his personal mental health story with me and honestly, it did not resonate with me in the deep of my soul. I had no idea what he was talking about experientially, but we both loved music and singing together. 

We began working as ministers of music in church, but sadly this career path was fraught with many obstacles; the primary of which was much opposition to the discussion of mental health. Glen lost a dozen jobs in our first 10 years of marriage and we struggled constantly just to survive. After a particularly devastating job loss, with three young daughters to care for, we both decided that teaching music lessons might be a better solution for Glen. For the next 11 years, we poured our hearts into sharing our love of music with somewhat eager students. It was often a thankless occupation.

One day Glen approached me with a handful of twisted up guitar strings and boldly announced his idea for creating jewelry from his cast off strings. I thought the idea was ridiculously irresponsible, but he persisted and I finally gave in. My first piece was designed to honor him and his “genius” idea and today this is one of our most loved pieces. The ReThrive guitar pick bracelet was the inspiration for an entire collection of mental health inspired guitar string jewelry.

In the spring and summer of 2011, we sold everything we owned to purchase a 5th wheel RV.  We had this crazy insane idea to travel and make a difference through our story. The journey didn’t unfold as we imagined, but one thing led to the next.  We spent 3 years living in the RV while traveling to art shows all over the Eastern US.  We started small, selling at flea markets and local art markets.  It wasn’t long until larger markets opened up and we ended up settling in Savannah, GA, selling our handcrafted designs on Riverstreet.

It was here that I learned my art had value while I often experienced watching shoppers from all over the world line up to buy our goods. We often heard people exclaim that they had never seen this anywhere. Gradually the narrative changed and it wasn’t long until our work was being copied by quite a few artists. After a successful launch on Etsy as the first guitar string jewelry artist, I left that platform to launch my own website because so many people were stealing my designs. I felt I could not continue to spoon feed them my inspiration.  

And then 2020 happened! The whole world and the art scene came to a screeching halt. We watched as the world told us art was irrelevant while social media became a scene to push online shopping with the big conglomerates. Artists began to suffer at an astonishing rate. It is five years later and the world has changed so dramatically that it is hard to imagine there is a way through this selling crisis.  

We have learned to say it is ok all while still dreaming of better days ahead. Faith has carried us through some very difficult seasons. In our move back to Nashville five years ago, we began a different leg of our journey with sidewalk selling. It’s been a crazy roller coaster with selling in downtown Nashville for 1.5 years, to the mayor imposing a ban, to moving to a different part of the city, to now dealing with this disengaged shopper mindset.  

Art has truly been rendered irrelevant in our current culture…or maybe that’s just our story and experience. We believe wholeheartedly that art matters, and while we believe a creative life isn’t for everyone, it is definitely better for Glen and myself. I could never see myself as anything but a creative.  At every single job outside of my creative career, I was miserable and always dreaming of how I could make my living with my art. That is how a creative thinks. We believe the mediocre mindset is single handedly destroying creativity. 

Art is not what we do, it is who we are. Our story is best told through the art we create and how could we not share it with you! Our journey has been long and filled with struggle. No one likes a story like this, not even us. Readers always look for the pinnacle moment when the big reveal happens, when the story gives way to a store, a big launch, a book deal, and your brand becomes the talk of the town. And everyone wants to provide the fix, but what if this is as good as it gets?

Our story is best told through small moments of triumph. Perhaps that is why our mental health collection means so much to us. It embodies our story. Sometimes we have to learn to press on even when the big answers or triumphs never come. Sometimes staying small while living grateful is the only way through the thicket of struggles. Perhaps the bigger picture is what God is doing in our story!

Whatever it is, ReThrive is about becoming a brand that tells the story of overcoming all the obstacles. We are artists with a beautiful resilient story to share and we thank you for listening and supporting our creativity.