Mom and Pop Jewelry Design Store To Shutter in New Year

After 28 years in the jewelry business, which his family of tailors considers a trade outside the family, Angelo and Maria Vasi, owners of Artisan Jewelers at 88 Court St., are retiring in January.

The Vasis have had their jewelry business since October 1983, Maria said.

Reluctantly, Angelo always said that he would retire when he turns 70, Maria said, which means Jan. 1, 2012.

“He really loves what he does,” Maria said. “It took him a long time to make this decision because of that.”

“When you love what you do, it is very hard,” Angelo said about retiring.

Angelo started learning the goldsmith trade at 14, Maria said.

Angelo started in the business as a “runner,” which basically meant being a gopher. Along with getting coffee and whatever else his teacher needed, he would watch how jewelry was created.

“You watch a lot,” Angelo said.

After watching, Angelo and his teacher would create jewelry together, he said.

Angelo considers himself the “black sheep” in the family since he is the only one in the jewelry business. The rest of his family are tailors, he said. His father never forgave him for becoming a goldsmith, Angelo said.

Before starting in the business of selling jewelry, Angelo had his own jewelry repair store. He had a number of accounts from different jewelry stores in town and a few from out of town to repair their jewelry.

Angelo said he has repaired more jewelry than he has created since coming to the United States at the age of 24.

Angelo received his start when Louie Koff, the previous owner of the business, retired, gave him the chance to purchase it, Maria said.

Angelo has always made jewelry, but wasn’t selling it until he had his own store, Maria said. With all the repairs he was doing, he didn’t have a lot of time to create jewelry except for her or himself, she said.

When he creates pieces of jewelry, Angelo does it “the old way,” Maria said. The old way consists of melting and rolling the gold then making the individual links.

When Angelo creates a piece, “love” is put into it, Maria said.

“People don’t appreciate stuff like they use to,” Maria said. “Everything now is about the dollar. What’s cheap is good.”

Angelo said that the jewelry business is not “a good business to be in these days.”

“It’s a dying trade,” Maria said. “It’s a shame now everything is done by machines.”

Angelo and Maria have been married for 45 years and they have a 24-year-old son, Marco.

Their son “puttered around in high school with jewelry, but he never really got into it,” Angelo said.

Angelo didn’t want his son to be in the business, he said. Nor did his son.

“It is very difficult,” Angelo said about the jewelry business. “If you have no choice and you really love it then I could see. I didn’t see him really loving it.”

Maria worked as a bookkeeper and did other jobs before working with her husband once he bought the jewelry business.

At the moment, they don’t have any retirement plans, she said.

“We never really planned anything because it took so long for him to make a decision to retire in the first place,” Maria said.

The thing Maria will miss most about not being in the jewelry business is the customers and her bond with them.

“We have had some really nice people,” Maria said. “You make friends with them.”

Maria said that some customers come in just to say hello. Since she only works three days a week now, they call first to make sure she is in the store before stopping by to talk, she said.

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