78 Photo Essay: Riley Elizabeth Stanton

Owner, Authentically Yours Jewelry

Words by Suzie Walton | Image by Blakeney Clouse

In high school, Riley Stanton asked her parents for a new catcher’s mitt that was pretty expensive. They told her they would cover most of the expense, but she would have to come up with the rest. So she did the only thing she knew to make money. 

“I made pearl chokers for friends and family to buy that catcher’s mitt,” Riley says.

Now at 22 years old, Riley, the former Oakman High School catcher who gleaned great skills at overcoming challenges during those dusty days behind home plate, is wise beyond her years. Today she sits in a corner booth at a restaurant in Parrish, her clay earrings dangling at her cheeks, the earth tones complimenting her eyes and hair as she smiles and recounts the journey to starting her own business. 

Before attending Wallace State in 2017 to earn her degree in Occupational Therapy, Riley spent 14 years playing in the dirt. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Riley returned to playing with dirt—now in its clay form—molding and shaping jewelry for her business, Authentically Yours.

Riley’s jewelry-making faded over the years while she chased softball titles, but a hip injury she had suffered intensified. “I will never forget the last game I played,” she recalls. “It was senior night. My hip had been hurting. I couldn’t catch or run but I could hit.”

Riley recently underwent her third hip surgery and is spending time in physical therapy. After COVID, she could no longer serve as a PRN at Druid City Hospital or the nursing home. “I was bored and trying to figure out what I could do while I healed,” she says. “So, I fell back on what I did before—making jewelry.” 

After six months of showcasing her earrings on the website Etsy, Riley has shipped her handiwork to 28 states and hopes her business continues to grow. 

“There is something about molding and conditioning clay that is very therapeutic to me,” Riley explains. “I mix a lot of my own colors, so I get them exactly how I want them.” 

Like life, Riley’s creations come with challenges. “Molding the earrings is not always that simple,” she says. “Sometimes the clay crumbles. Sometimes I do everything I know to do, and it still falls apart in my hands. I continuously condition and mold it until it turns into something beautiful. It reminds me of Isaiah 64:8: ‘But now, O Lord, You are our Father, we are the clay. You are our potter, we are a work of Your hands.’

Riley says that the verse is a constant reminder that God can bring beauty out of brokenness and order out of all the chaos. 78