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Becky Sher uses her crafting skills to bring a little color to the world, through customized pencils and whimsical buttons.
“I always joke that my shop is sort of like a window into my soul,” Sher says. “I really only do things that I like.”
The Bethesda wife and mother of two teens sells tiny products with lighthearted messages on Etsy through her craft company, Ruth & Dottie, which is named after her grandmothers. Among its products, Ruth & Dottie creates custom pencils that have earned a huge fan base, especially at the start of each school year. Customers order pencils with tailored messages or themed around kindness, girl power, chocolate and more. Think “Chase Rainbows” or “Good Vibes Only.”
“There really isn’t one that is the most popular—we literally sell out of all of them,” says Connie Cissel, owner of The Blue House in Bethesda, which carries the line. “It’s very fun, happy, can’t-walk-out-without-it stuff.”
Sher painstakingly hand-emblazons each pencil message using a hot foil stamping machine in her basement craft room. Six customized pencils go for $10, and six themed pencils are $9, each displaying up to 25 characters.
“They are really awesome,” says Megan Andrew, a psychologist at Bardstown City Schools in Kentucky who hands out Ruth & Dottie pencils to students caught being good. “They all say kindness things on them, so if I see a kid in the hallway doing something, I just pop a pencil out and say, ‘Here. I like how you handled that.’ ”
Sher won’t reveal specifics but says Ruth & Dottie’s revenue has grown significantly over the years, more than doubling since 2021, when she started selling wholesale and in local retail stores. Advertising is practically nonexistent: Sher purchases a few Etsy ads to highlight products in search results, and hands out free pencils to teachers and neighbors. Other than that, the entrepreneur relies on repeat customers for sales of the amusing creations she masterminds. Navarro’s MCPS pay released: three months, $96.62 per hour
“It’s just me—designing, assembling, shipping and inventory,” says Sher, 46, who grew up in New Jersey and has been living in Montgomery County since 2001. “I tell people I am a one-woman show—90% of the time, I like it that way.”
Ruth & Dottie’s product line includes buttons representing a wide variety of cultural phenomena: fans of ’80s movies, The Golden Girls, quilters, yarn lovers, plant lovers and more. Button topics run the gamut, but kindness-themed products are most popular. Sher says she has made over 300,000 of them by hand, using a “really good printer and an old-school button maker” machine. Customers clamor for her creations, and pins with cheerful messages such as “Be Nice First” and “Kind People are My Kinda People” are snapped up by school districts, teachers and positive-minded patrons. A package of eight buttons costs $7.50, and a set of 24 is $18.
“The pins are a hit at our middle school,” says Andrew, who has ordered more than 1,000 kindness buttons since discovering the colorful items on Etsy. “They just have such good meaning behind them.”
A former journalist and journalism professor at The George Washington University, Sher started making buttons as a Girl Scout leader in 2016 and realized there might be a market for her wares. She works out of her Bethesda home, usually at her dining room table, coming up with the sayings and artwork on her buttons, which are about the size of a 25-cent coin.
“I’ve become known as the pin lady,” Sher says, noting that her products are available at The Blue House in Bethesda, Locally Crafted in Gaithersburg, and SW7 in Kensington. Ruth & Dottie products are also sold in over 500 shops in the U.S., Europe and Australia through an online wholesale marketplace called Faire.
“I have purchased several items from Becky, including pencils, stickers, and pins,” says Gwen Brown, owner of Gwen Erin Natural Fibers in Hubbard, Ohio. “Having these clever and affordable items at the counter are a great add-on purchase—folks love to dig through the little dish of buttons to find just the right saying.”
Sher enjoys the autonomy her business allows her, and regularly connects with other local small businesses to swap ideas and occasionally collaborate. In the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Sarah Dwyer, owner of Gaithersburg-based Chouquette Chocolates, contacted Ruth & Dottie on Etsy. Sher agreed to create a button of Dr. Anthony Fauci to coordinate with Dwyer’s Dr. Fauci chocolates, both of which turned out to be popular items for the two small businesses. Sher continues to tap into popular themes, whether they’re about voting, reading, tacos or Harry Potter.
“The buttons and the pencils—they’re very old school—it makes me happy that other people still value those things,” Sher says. “It’s sending little bits of happiness out into the world every time I send out an order.”
This story appears in the September/October issue of Bethesda Magazine. Related Stories If MoCo360 keeps you informed, connected and inspired, circle up and join our community by becoming a member today. Your membership supports our community journalism and unlocks special benefits. Become a member
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