Month: April 2022

Welcome to another Grateful Heart Monday entry, where gratitude remains the sole focus on my writing to start each of my week’s off, which for today is for Sherman Kardatzke, owner of Not Just Rocks Lapidary Supply and sincere hobby enthusiast of precious stones, crystals, and rocks.

For those who see me with regularity, I tend to wear a lot of 18” crystal necklaces of many different varieties. At this point, I probably have at least thirty or more of them and that number only continues to grow with every year. While many may argue that crystals don’t really do anything except look nice, I’ve seen much of my health change incredibly just in wearing one of my necklaces and learned each of them carries specific healing qualities, with my favorite one being howlite, as it’s used to ward off and remove negative energy.

Nevertheless, for my first few years here in Toledo, a sponsee I had in recovery had a wife who repaired my crystal necklaces whenever they broke. She did amazing work, but sadly one day a few years ago she said she wasn’t open to doing that type of work anymore. When she had no suggestions for who could help me in the future with that type of work, I began having a pile of broken crystal necklaces grow, usually due to the cheap strings and/or clasps that were used to originally make them. Thankfully, last year that changed when I met Sherman Kardatzke at the Toledo Gem and Rockhound Club annual show in September.

Every year I tend to go to this show solely looking for new crystal necklaces to wear or precious stones to place around my home or to carry in my pocket. During this past show though, I decided to go with a different purpose, one that mainly looked for a merchant who could repair my growing pile of broken necklaces. Most of the vendors I met there weren’t interested in repairing them though and were only looking to sell what they had. And when a few did offer to repair them, it was for prices far higher than what they were worth. I was about to give up until I came to the last vendor table where I’d meet Sherman.

Outgoing, cheerful, upbeat, energetic, and an all-around nice guy, Sherman answered all my questions and offered to repair my necklaces for an affordable price. He said he’d even make them far stronger at that. I gave him one of my broken necklaces to start and he told me to come back the next day to the show where he’d have it ready. And sure enough, it was!

Ever since then, I’ve been giving him all my necklaces to repair where each have come back with far stronger wire and magnetic clasps. In the process, I’ve built a working friendship with Sherman and become very grateful in getting to know someone who’s vastly knowledgeable in this area of expertise.

Sherman lives in Adrian, Michigan, but comes to Toledo quite often to run the Toledo Gem and Rockhound Clubhouse, which isn’t too far from my home. There, I’ve come to learn a lot about an entire hobby I never knew much about and seen a passion in Sherman that is indeed special. Sherman has now saved a good number of necklaces in my collection and has even added to my collection with the creation of new ones I didn’t have.

So, I’m thankful for my growing connection with Sherman, for his knowledge with crystals, rocks, and precious stones, for his ability to repair necklaces I loved that I thought were broken for good, for creating new necklaces for me from other crystals I never had, and for him just being a good-natured gentleman who was more interested in sharing his gift with me at the start than in making me a sale. For all of this and more, it’s why I’m dedicating today’s Grateful Heart Monday entry to you Sherman Kardatzke, please keep doing what you do!

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson