After losing his beloved wife Joyce in 2013, Willis Wipf said he faced heartbreak like he’d never known. “I needed a reason to get out of bed in the morning,” he said. And from that grief, a quiet but powerful purpose was born, making earrings.
Now 95 years old and living in a senior RV resort in Mesa, Arizona, Willis has turned his tiny lapidary workshop into a hub of creativity and kindness. What started as a simple craft to cheer up his wife nearly three decades ago has become a daily devotion. “If it brightens the day for some woman, it’s worthwhile,” he told The Washington Post.
Wipf said he spends about three hours each day in the workshop, crafting earrings by hand. His process is detailed and full of care: he cuts rocks into thin, inch-long slices, grinds them into teardrop, triangle, or diamond shapes, polishes them until they shine, and finishes them with hooks, each pair taking about two hours to complete. At home, he said he stores the earrings in bowls of salt to keep them upright and uses a repurposed MacBook Pro box as his display case.
Over the years, Wipf has made earrings from rocks found in driveways, streambeds, and mountains, and later started buying gemstones like opal, lapis, and malachite. He saves his Social Security checks and skips takeout meals just to afford more materials. “He doesn’t want to discard a single stone,” his daughter, Jane Wiebe, said, noting that four five-gallon buckets of rocks sit outside his RV, many gifted to him by neighbors.
Willis doesn’t sell any of his earrings, he gives them all away. To date, he’s gifted over 10,000 pairs, offering them to women he meets or mailing them to his children to distribute. His daughter Jane, who lives in Homer, Alaska, keeps dozens in her blue Subaru Crosstrek and hands them out wherever she goes, store parking lots, bridge games, even dentist appointments. “They usually ask how much they cost,” she said. “They are free. You can’t buy them.”
Joyce wore his handmade earrings nearly every day before she passed away from Alzheimer’s. After her death, Willis gave the 80 pairs she left behind to their children and grandchildren. In the early days of his grief, he tried to stay busy with tennis, golf, and choir, but as he aged, it was the lapidary workshop that kept calling him back.
He follows a strict daily routine, morning shift at the workshop, beef vegetable soup and a vanilla protein shake for lunch, a nap, and then an afternoon session. Even after a heart failure scare in 2023, he called his daughter from the hospital and said, “I got earrings to make.”
He’s become something of a celebrity in his senior community. “He doesn’t know every woman here,” Jane said, “but they all know him.” At an art show this March, Willis said he handed out over 120 pairs of earrings and printouts of his 14-step process, so he could clear space to make more.
Because for Willis Wipf, it was never about jewelry. It was about joy…which he’s still spreading it, one shimmering stone at a time.
- Missouri Car Dealer Goes Viral for Doing the Right Thing—Even When He Didn’t Have To - November 4, 2025
- Teacher Uses 3D Printer to Build Student a New Hand—Out of Corn-Based Plastic - November 4, 2025
- Hero Pup Named After a Goddess Finds Lost Toddler in Freezing Woods - November 4, 2025
