Day 170: Sherry Duquet
“I have sidewalk chalk, I have coloring books, I have Play-Doh. You’re not going to believe this, but I just found Shrinky-Dinks. … It really just gets me back to that place where you felt absolutely unlimited … without your filters, without your fear, without your cell phone bill. You just were in a place of joy, creativity and ‘There is absolutely nothing I cannot do.’”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Sherry, for being part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Sherry Duquet: Yes. My name is Sherry Duquet, and I’m CEO and Chief Designer of Solstice Designs Jewelry.
Toni: Thank you, and thanks for being here today.
Sherry: Thank you for having me. This is really an honor.
Toni: Oh, great. Well, when you think of the word inspiration, Sherry, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Sherry: Well, I believe that through Solstice Designs, through our jewelry business, but specifically through Project Mother’s Day, we are able to inspire people across the country because it’s an anonymous gift. We don’t ever meet the people that we are able to touch, and I think that when people see that, when people share in that experience, that that inspires them to do the same.
Toni: So it’s really leading by example in the … I don’t know, the giving back business, isn’t it?
Sherry: Well, yeah. I believe so. Just encouraging people to be their own best and to literally just take on random acts of kindness, and you know, we have so many people across the country and just our own clients here in our community that help us and support us to do this project at all. And I believe that that inspires them to do more as well because, again, we never meet the people that we touch, and that’s what I think is so magical about this project.
Toni: So you don’t really even know who it is that you’re inspiring, but you know they’re there.
Sherry: I believe that, yes. That’s what I find so just magical and exciting about this project, and that we’ve even been able to do it for five years. And I do believe that … that, you know, when you give without expectation, that that’s inspiring and that inspires others.
Toni: Give without expectation – I love that. By having that mentality and that drive and intention, Sherry, how do you think people watching you do this, following you guys do this, how do you think it helps other people explore their potential?
Sherry: I think again just by giving people the opportunity to give, because I feel like we’re all very giving by nature, but we’re also driven by fear and fear of lack, and fear of not having. So how do you give when you’re coming from a place of fear? And when you show people how easy it is to give and give them the opportunity to give, I think they want to. I think sometimes people, again, just don’t know how. Maybe I want to volunteer at “fill-in-the-blank,” but maybe I’m not sure how to get started.
When you give people the opportunity just to kind of join your project and, you know, sharing by your own example, we’ve seen — I mean obviously, because we continue to do this project — that people do want to help. They want to be a part of it. They want to help others, but sometimes just need your guidance.
Toni: And you don’t even realize they’re there. It could be your neighbor, it could be a colleague, and you’re providing them a way to really give back – that’s fantastic. Now, let me ask you, can you tell me just a little bit about Project Mother’s Day?
Sherry: Well, Project Mother’s Day is just a grass roots venture that we started – again, this is the fifth year – where we have fundraisers, we raise funds throughout the year to get the components to make handcrafted jewelry to give to children in the care of domestic violence shelters to give to their mom as their own gift on Mother’s Day.
Another thing that I love about it is that we give them to all the women in the shelter for Mother’s Day, even if they don’t have children, because they’re coming from a caring friend. And so again, all the women in the shelter will receive this piece, and I design each piece new every year. And so it’s a piece that just carries courage and strength and it’s a talisman for your journey … you know, the journey to come, and it’s a gift from your own child.
I just think it’s so magical that we’re giving children their own opportunity back to give. You know, like if they’re living in a shelter, they’ve lost their own opportunity to give, especially if they’re not going to school, and we’re giving that back to them.
Toni: And there’s so many layers to that, because it’s not only the children giving to their mothers in a place right now where they can’t, they can’t physically do something like that, go and do something. So you’re providing them with an opportunity to give something to their mother, but you’re also then teaching them what that feels like to give.
Sherry: Exactly; and just trying to renormalize part of their life and their situation, because obviously they’ve been uprooted, and that is very, very, very abnormal. So how do you give them back something that to them is inherent? You know, giving, for children, is just so … it’s so natural to them, and just giving that back to them, and then again, just the amazing, beautiful part is them nurturing their mother.
We didn’t know this until we started the project, but last year since the project went national, obviously we talk to shelters across the country. Mother’s Day is one of the most celebrated days in a shelter. More than Christmas, more than anything, because of the honor of your mother protecting you and just bringing you to the safe house.
Toni: Oh, gosh.
Sherry: And we didn’t know that, and it’s just so … it’s so wonderful.
Toni: And so to add to that celebration must really be amazing. Sherry, when you think about inspiration for you, what do you need to be inspired?
Sherry: I’ve found that it’s almost the absence of fear. There’s a saying that I love that is, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” And whenever I feel scared or just unsure or, you know, I don’t how we’re going to make this work — I mean this is so big for two of us, I don’t know how we’re going to make this work — and I just think what would I personally attempt to do if I knew there was no wrong, if I knew I couldn’t fail – and that really, really inspires me and it makes me feel limitless.
Toni: Do you find yourself reaching for certain tools or methods when you are looking and seeking for that inspiration so that you can stay in that place of no fear?
Sherry: I have a lot of different stabilizers. A big one for me is the sun. The sunshine, to me, literally just reinvigorates me and rejuvenates more than anything else. But I love to swim and to stay creative. I play – a lot.
Toni: Can you give us examples of that?
Sherry: Sure. I have sidewalk chalk, I have coloring books, I have Play-Doh. You’re not going to believe this, but I just found Shrinky-Dinks. I’m not kidding. You want to feel joy again, make a Shrinky-Dink in the middle of the day. Yeah. It really just gets me back to that place where you felt absolutely unlimited, you know, without your filters, without your fear, without your cell phone bill. You just were in a place of joy, creativity, and “There is absolutely nothing I cannot do.” And so I play all the time. I can’t wait to fly a kite. It’s still a little bit cold here, but it’s coming.
Toni: Oh my gosh. Well, as long as you’re not swimming while you’re flying the kite … that is awesome. So now, have you always come to the table this way? This sense of, you know, creativity and no fear – have you always been that way?
Sherry: You know, I haven’t. Really, starting this business five years ago has transformed me and helped me find a part of myself literally like my own inner strength, like I’m kind of living my own journey through this jewelry. I didn’t know that I had this … this ability, this lack of fear, even this place to tap into where I actually believed that I could do anything.
It’s been learned behavior. I mean, I’ve worked on it and, you know, the affirmations and just when you continue to move forward regardless of fear, that becomes learned behavior, you know what I mean, as opposed to not doing something because “Oh, I don’t know how we can do that.”
I’ve never known, ever, how we would do this project. I just absolutely knew without a shadow of a doubt we would. Even when we took it from 85 pieces which, again, it’s just us making them by hand, I mean it’s so ridiculous. When we took it to 400 pieces, there was no doubt in my mind, and I don’t know why. I’ve just been working on just nurturing myself and my own inner vision, and it’s really worked.
Toni: It’s really incredible, Sherry, on this Project, a lot of people talk about whether they came to the table with their own sense of purpose, that there’s a passion that drives that. They may have always known what their purpose was, but there was either an evolution that they can kind of pinpoint in their life that they became aware of what their purpose was or there was a tipping point, and it sounds to me from your perspective, that there might have been a tipping point for you.
Sherry: I really believe that it was. I mean, I’ve always … I mean, who doesn’t love success? I’ve always tried to succeed and be the best me that I thought I was at the time, but the past five years have exceeded my expectations of the joy I can even have in a lifetime, and I’m so young. I mean, I just can’t believe it that I’ve been able to find it, and literally I can’t believe it every day when I get to wake up and make jewelry.
Toni: This is where it becomes so powerful in your interview and what you’re doing. And people listening from all over the world are going to say to themselves “You know what, I don’t come to the table … I’m not built this way either; I am fearful.” And listening to you and listening to your story and you overcoming that fear to now experience the joy that you’re experiencing and the impact that you are having, this is really going to be helpful for people all over the world as well.
Sherry: Thank you. Thank you for saying that – that means a lot to me.
Toni: You’re quite welcome. So, the final question of the Project is, what do you need to continue to explore your own potential?
Sherry: Again, I just think working on the absence of fear, just knowing that even in the face of fear, I can continue to move forward. Even when you feel paralyzed, you can continue to move forward. And knowing that I have the opportunity and the ability to make this type of impact, there isn’t anything that can stand in the way of that. Not lack of money, lack of, you know … just knowing that we can do this project is enough for us to continue to do it.
That literally is inspiration enough, because I do believe wholeheartedly that we are impacting people that we will never meet, and that is the type of joy that I couldn’t create, you know what I mean? Like I couldn’t make that up. I couldn’t even strive for that, if I knew what it was. We found it through this project, and now I’m just not willing to let it go. It’s definitely … it’s changed me, and I believe it’s changed the people that it’s touched.
Toni: It’s amazing, you are creating jewelry that becomes someone’s statement, right?
Sherry: Absolutely.
Toni: Whatever their statement is, is what you’re saying, and yet you also have built this on the affirmations for yourself, the statements for yourself, and it’s really come full circle that way; that’s what I’m hearing through this interview.
Sherry: Well, you know, I was nervous about this interview because, you know, everybody wants to sound smart and entertaining and inspiring, so I put on the necklace for this year to just remind myself of my own inner strength. Because I don’t know if you saw the necklace, but the washer is hidden in between two hand-hammered, hand-forged washers, and it was a strength washer that’s inside of it, so only you know it’s there, because that’s what it’s about is our inner strength and our inner light.
It may dim, but it’s always been there – we just need to tap back into it. So that’s why I created the piece the way I did for this year. It’s your inner strength, and it’s just a talisman and a reminder that we all have that; that can’t be beat out of us or taken from us or stolen from us. And so I put the necklace on before I spoke to you, just to know it was there.
Toni: I don’t know if you realize that you not only are making people aware of what inspires you and how you inspire but, you know, with the jewelry that you’re making and the project that you’re working on, but I hope you realize too, what you’ve done for others that are listening, and it’s come across loud and clear of what you need, you’ve done, and you’re creating for others. That is very cool.
Sherry: Thank you. Thank you very much, really.
Toni: You are quite welcome. Thank you so much for the work that you guys are doing, and thank you very much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Sherry: Thank you, really, it’s been my honor.
Toni: Take care of yourself and good luck.
Sherry: Thank you, you too.
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For more information about Sherry Duquet: www.SolsticeD.Etsy.com, www.ProjectMothersDay.com
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