Just over a decade ago, grief left Joe Petzold withdrawing from the things he loved the most. Petzold loved making candles with his daughters and wife, and loved hunting – two hobbies he stopped when Jessica, his daughter, became sick in 2014 and passed away.
As Petzold began channeling his grief through therapy and creative activities like sanding rocks, he realized he found a new hobby. He graduated to a palm sander, then to a belt sander, and eventually to the large CabKing 8-inch cabbing machine he has today in his new store, Unique Creations by Joe inside the Markland Mall.
Finding calm and patience in the process helped Petzold move forward after losing his daughter, and ultimately opened the door to a new career.
“Rocks saved my life and gave me patience,” he says. “I’m not in a hurry anymore. Before this I had zero patience in life, and owe that to the therapy that turned into a hobby.”
He originally began working out of his garage making custom pieces for people who heard about what he was doing solely by word of mouth. Then, in September of last year, Petzold and his wife, Lisa, decided it was time to go big or go home – one of their favorite sayings – and they signed a lease for a storefront at the Markland Mall and opened Unique Creations.
Now a full-fledged business with two full-time employees in addition to Petzold and his wife, the store offers a unique blend of handcrafted items like candles and wax melts, resin art, fossils, and jewelry, all made by Petzold right in the store. He accepts custom orders for jewelry and cuts his own stones, and he also does wire wrap jewelry.
“Unique Creations is really geared toward visual and learning experiences,” he says. “You walk in and it’s totally different than anything you’ve seen before. We have candles and candle warmers on one wall with over 90 different fragrances to choose from, and 60 different air diffuser scents. Then we have gems, minerals, resin art and an indoor mining sluice – a device that separates gems from dirt and gravel – on another.”
For $6 per bag, visitors can purchase a bag of dirt and sift through it using an in-store water source to discover fossils, gems and minerals.
The mining sluice has been fun for kids, Petzold says. A few kids used the device to find gems they made into jewelry for their mothers as gifts. The store has also been approved by the mall to be used as a destination for field trips – a unique opportunity for elementary students to participate in a hands-on gem mining experience.
“I want to leave this store for my grandchildren,” Petzold says. “I want to leave a legacy. I want my family to know I wanted to take care of them, and that I did.”
Petzold takes pride in his store, and puts in long hours to ensure the success they’ve seen in the last four and a half months continues. Supported by his two full-time employees who have been with him since the beginning, along with his wife and brother, the store is aiming for growth in the coming year – something Petzold wishes could happen quickly, while he remembers to slow down and just be patient.
“I’m here every single day, but my name is on that sign,” he says. “You have to have passion and if I’m not here hand-making our items, we won’t be here either.”
Petzold wants the Kokomo community to know that everyone is welcome in his store, and he hopes to meet more and more customers as Unique Creations works on getting the official store website up and running, showcasing their products – and unique creations.
Unique Creations by Joe is located inside the Markland Mall at 1114 South Seventeenth Street in Kokomo.
