Traveling Pendants Creates “Powerful Chain of Support” Through Jewelry

By Karen Dybis | October 31, 2025

Lesley Jones intends her Dayton, Ohio-based brand, Traveling Pendants, to allow people to find connection and develop empathy through jewelry, using digital tools that allow the wearer to tell their story and share experiences.

The former communications and development professional started the company in 2022, after carrying the idea for more than two decades. She says this second career in jewelry fulfills her dream of making pendants that help connect people in real life and online.

“At heart, we are a mission-driven business,” says Jones. “It’s not just jewelry. It’s strength for the journey. It’s a shared experience of hope and support.”

The phrase “strength for the journey” is engraved in block letters on pendants in Jones’ Signature collection. She first heard those words in 2002 after her aunt, who had two young sons and was only in her thirties, was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer.

*Faith and Hope are two styles in Traveling Pendants’ collection, each made of sterling silver and each bearing a QR code on the reverse side.*

“During her treatment at the Cleveland Clinic, a woman gave my aunt a pendant that said ‘Strength for the journey,’ and someone had given that pendant to her,” Jones says. “My aunt clung to that pendant during treatment. She felt like it was mystical, because it carried the strength of all of those people who came before her.”

The pendant was given to Jones’ mother in 2007 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Both her mother and her aunt (who also is her godmother) are now in remission, Jones says.

“I became fascinated with that pendant…the idea that something could carry the energy, strength, and stories of real people,” she says. “I thought, ‘What if you could track those stories and read all of them?’ Then you could know the history of your pendant. My aunt and mom didn’t know that history, but they would have loved that back then.”

Jones’ jewelry uses QR codes that, when scanned, allow people to add their story and to read stories from others who’ve owned a Traveling Pendants necklace. These Strength Stories, as Jones calls them, touch on topics including struggles with fertility and motherhood, mental health, grief, addiction and recovery, love, and personal wins.

Every pendant, in both the Signature and Guardian collections, has a QR code on the back. The wearer might keep their pendant or pass it on to somebody else, as with the pendant that inspired Jones’ business.

Traveling Pendants necklaces retail for $120 to $150. They are currently made in sterling silver, though Jones hopes to eventually offer them in precious metals as well.

Traveling Pendants packaging — *Lesley Jones wanted packaging that made every pendant look like a gift and would nicely carry the piece in case it gets shared.*

Originally, each pendant had a hand-stamped number on it. Jones did the stamping herself, but as the brand grew, she realized her hands and back were taking the brunt of that work and she’d needed a more sustainable process going forward. After finding a team to help, she relaunched the business this summer.

Reading the Strength Stories on Traveling Pendants’ website opens a window onto other people’s lives, and onto what the pendants have meant to them during good, bad, or in-between times.

“At first it was just something to wear, but then it became something more,” says the story called “Carrying My Dad With Me,” which the author wrote after their father’s death. “The weight of the pendant against my chest became almost symbolic—as if it was holding a small piece of him close to me.”

Providing an opportunity for people to share like that is why Jones became a small-business owner, and what keeps her—and the business—going. “Sharing our stories helps us connect and heal,” she says. “Your story becomes a link in a powerful chain of support.”

(Photos courtesy of Traveling Pendants)