Maureen Brusa Zappellini
Metalsmithing discovered me back in 1986 when I couldn’t get a job
during summers home from college. The owner of my mother’s favorite
jewelry store took pity on a scruffy artsy punk rock girl and offered
to take me in as an apprentice. worked my bondoonie off. 6 days a
week that first summer, driving 30 miles each way from my home in New
Hampshire to the coastal town Ogonquit Maine, and Perkins Cove.
Believe me, I went through a Huge amount of silver that first month!
(thank God for refining) All summer I mostly made silver chain and
earrings…nothing too exciting but great practice. Invaluable. By the
end of that first summer, I could solder like a madwoman and forge
chain like a pirate…And I was HOOKED on Metalsmithing for life!
Many years later now I am still going strong, showing in galleries,
teaching, goldmithing for a friend’s successful mokume ring business,
selling online… I absolutely love my career, and I think my passion
for the craft of metalsmithing is reflected in my work.