By Ben Cox
Photos/Submitted to The Source & ElCrow Photography
Jen Brickey and Jacey Pate are a mother and daughter who have little time to spare. Brickey is a registered dental hygienist at College Avenue Dental in Jacksonville and co-owns the popular drink and food spot, Brickey’s Junction, on IL-267 just north of Murrayville. Pate works full-time at White Hall Nursing & Rehabilitation Center as a speech therapist and also is in the midst of raising two children and four dogs.
In April, the two decided to go into business together creating personalized trucker hats, hat pins, hat chains and patches. Over the summer, their 46:5 booth became a fixture for the Jacksonville Main Street Downtown Concert Series. They’ve also done pop-up events at several Jacksonville area businesses this year.
The business has expanded into engraving and special items using a state-of-the-art Glowforge Pro laser engraving machine. Pate says her mom saw the machine online and knew the two of them had to have it to make items.
“At first, I was pretty skeptical about it. I was like, I don’t know what we’re going to even do with this, but it’s pretty capable of a lot of things,” Pate explains, “I’ve been learning as I go.”
The machine needs its own space so Pate enlisted a portion of her husband’s business, Maul’s Shop, located on the east end of Jacksonville, as the place to work.
“I’ve just been self-taught from watching YouTube,” Pate says. She says she started out engraving leather patches to place on hats but things have grown from there, “I’ve done a cutting board. … Watchbands are a really big hit, like Apple watchbands. They’re like a silicone material. And then I’ve started making signs for, they’re like 10 and a half inch signs for businesses, and I can cut acrylic and wood on my machine, too. And then I’ve also cut out puzzles, name puzzles for kids.”
The engraving pieces haven’t made it out to all of the Jacksonville events so far because Pate says those items are extremely personalized in some cases. If you are looking for an item to be engraved, she says to find 46:5 on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok and shoot her a message with your order and details.
Currently, engraved watchbands are $25, with cutting boards and signs starting around $50.
As for the name of the business, it’s drawn from Psalms 46:5 in the Bible (NIV), which reads, “God is within her, she will not fall.”
Both women say they are enjoying being in business together. In an April Facebook post, Pate shared how her mom’s business acumen and intuition haven’t steered them wrong yet, “I’m anxious to start this journey with my mom, but she seems to think we can do it … she hasn’t been wrong yet!”
The trucker hats and personalized items were a popular addition this year to the concert series and 46:5 appears to be heading into the holiday shopping season ready to take orders for that one-of-kind item, personalized for your loved one or friend.
